Secret Agent Forge
by Theodore Hawkwood
Summary: Xavier sends Forge on a secret mission to the California town of Paradise Valley to investigate aberrant signals in the area. Forge stumbles upon a secret war being fought in the town between rival intelligence agencies from another universe...
1. Forge: Super Spy

Forge: Super Spy

**Disclaimer**: I don't own X-men Evolution, Charmed, the Misfits, Pirates of the Carribean, or a crossover with a certain Nikelodeon show (a somewhat AU version thereof). The Alternate Universe World War II where some of my characters come from is owned by me and can be explored in all my Charmed fanfics starting with Journey of a Halliwell. Also, the part of the chapter that describes the alternate World War II took place a few weeks before Forge had been sent on his mission.

**Summary**: Xavier sends Forge on a secret mission to the California town of Paradise Valley to investigate aberrant signals in the area. Forge stumbles upon a secret war being fought in the town between rival intelligence agencies from another universe.

--

"Forge," Beast said as he gingerly entered Forge's lab, one never knew what might shock, explode, inflame or electrify.

"Yeah?" The Native American inventor replied, "Beast before you get too mad, I didn't have anything to do with the walking cherry bombs in your twinkie stash."

"This is far more important. The Professor wants to see you right now..." Beast began.

"Listen, if this is about the wind up can can dancing doll that shoots electrical sparks, I'm sorry."

"Forge, this is about more than your insane birdbrain and often destructive experiments." Beast said, "This is an important mission and..." A dawning moment of comprehension hit the Beast just then, his eye twitched involuntarily as veins popped from his furry neck, "What was that about my twinkie stash!?"

"Uh oh, gotta go, see the professor and all!" Forge said and ran like a fox with his tail lit on fire straight to the Professor's office.

--

Professor Xavier watched as the harried looking Native American inventor, Forge entered. "Ah, Forge, I see you heard my message."

"Listen, I'm so sorry about..." Forge began.

"Forge, for once I'm not referring to your inventions which have caused more than their fair share of grief..." Xavier began.

"YAAARRRGGGHHH!!" Beast's scream echoed through the halls of the Institute.

"Please tell Beast I'm sorry about the walking cherry bombs..." Forge began.

"There is a mission, one that I believe you are best suited for." Xavier began.

"Professor, what exactly are you talking about?" Forge asked.

"There were some aberrant readings I have been receiving through Cerebro through the years, they seemed to stop for a few years, but lately they have been starting again. Emanating from Paradise Valley, California." Xavier said, "It's a small town, built around a chemical plant. The strange readings are coming from a young lady named Alex Mack. Her sister, Annie works as an intern at the Paradise Valley Chemical Plant, where her parents work as chemists."

"OK, but why me?" Forge asked.

"I want you to infiltrate the plant, undercover as a fellow intern. With your knowledge of the sciences and your quick thinking and, er...inventiveness..."

BOOM!

"FORGE!!" Scott screamed, "MORE OF YOUR WALKING CHERRY BOMBS JUST BLEW OFF A TREE LIMB WHICH LANDED ON MY CAR!!"

"As I was saying you have a perfect mix of attributes that would benefit you on this mission. I have written you glowing references and a close friend of mine is an influential member of the Paradise Valley Chemical Plant's board of directors." Xavier began.

"And what's my mission?" Forge asked.

"I want you to investigate and report on the readings, and see if you can't convince Ms. Mack to join us." Xavier began.

A long silence filled the room before Forge asked, "When do I leave?"

"My limo will take you to the airport." Xavier replied, "Get packed quickly. Your plane for California leaves at four-thirty in the afternoon."

Little did anyone realize a certain green parrot with a small mini-disc recorder and a teleportation device was hiding up in the rafters. "Juicy..." Polly the Parrot said as he tapped the small button on his teleportation harness.

Forge nodded and walked out of the room. He packed his backpack, a well built hiking backpack, and a larger suitcase. He headed downstairs towards the front yard into the limo and very likely among the more terrifying moments of his life.

As he opened the back door he saw Kitty Pryde sitting in the driver's seat with Jean Grey in the front.

"Oh shit..." Forge moaned.

A very hectic half hour, several angry, bewildered, and plumb terrified motorists later, Forge arrived at the airport. The second he left the car he kissed the ground.

"Gee Jean," Kitty began, "I've never seen a passenger look so happy with my driving before. Does that mean my driving's getting better?"

Jean hesitated for a moment, what she was thinking, _Forge is happy that he's alive. _"You're improving Kitty," Jean said with a diplomatic tone, "But try not to go into an airport entrance ramp at seventy-five miles an hour next time."

--

_**1943 (Alternate Universe): **_"Good morning gentlemen." the voice of Major Waverly, British Special Operations Executive began, "I suppose you're wondering why you're all here."

Waverly addressed a group of eight Allied military personnel, lead by US Navy Lieutenant Connor, OSS Maritime Detachment.

Waverly nodded to an aide who clicked a slide on the old projector, which showed a photograph of several Heartless.

"As you know our foes, the Heartless, use Corridors of Darkness to travel from world to world. As yet, the ability to use, and more importantly control Corridors of Darkness is beyond our understanding and mercifully beyond that of the Germans, Italians or Japanese." Waverly began, "Humans attempting to use Corridors of Darkness tend to suffer some ill effects..."

Waverly's aid showed a picture of a German soldier, almost halfway transformed into a Heartless. "This poor chap was discovered wandering, half mad, around the coast of Sicily several months ago. After interrogation it was revealed he had attempted to use a Corridor of Darkness to escape from our forces that were overrunning his position."

"However that does not mean that such attempts are not being made by either side." Waverly began and nodded, "Two weeks ago, Canadian special forces raided and destroyed a facility south of Rome being utilized by the German Abwehr intelligence bureau. Captured documents reveal that a small team of Nazi intelligence operatives were sent through the Corridor of Darkness."

"The lot of you are from a diverse lot, with experience operating behind enemy lines in both the British SOE and the American Office of Strategic Services." Waverly began, "Your mission is to track down the members of the Nazi Abwehr team and terminate them with extreme prejudice. Additionally you are to capture any documents on their efforts and any of their equipment. Repeat - Your mission is to track down the members of the Nazi Abwehr team and terminate them with extreme prejudice. Additionally you are to capture any documents on their efforts and any of their equipment."

"And how do you plan on sending us after the Nazis?" Connor asked.

"Based on the captured Nazi documents, our Research and Development section has managed to open another Corridor." Waverly replied.

"Some mission this is." 1st Lt. Anthony Hiram remarked, "Using untested Kraut technology to infiltrate God knows where."

"We can't always select our missions." Warrant Officer 2nd Class Michael Kaster, a member of Great Britain's SAS, remarked.

"I agree with LT Hiram, it's one hell of an idea, using untested Kraut technology to go after Krauts that may already have been transformed into Heartless using a Corridor of Darkness." Corporal Leeds, twenty, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, replied.

"Pipe down." First Sergeant Kyle Burke replied, "We've got a mission to accomplish, let's carry it out."

--

_**Present Day, Misfitverse a few weeks later: **_"You're up early." Annie Mack remarked as her younger sister returned from her morning jog.

"Jetlag." Alex replied, "I mean it's eleven o'clock in the morning in New York right now."

"So how's the first year of college treating you?" Annie asked.

"It's fun, but it can be draining at times." Alex replied.

"Pick a major yet?" Annie asked, sipping her coffee.

"Not really..." Alex said, "I'm still undecided."

"Did you get the paper?" Annie asked.

"Yeah." Alex replied.

The Paradise Valley Gazette headline read: **Unidentified Body Found On Outskirts of Town: Police Mystified**.

"An unidentified man, approximately twenty-seven years old was found, with a bullet hole in his head. Police believe the bullet came from a high powered rifle..." Annie began.

"Just what we need, another D.C. Sniper." Alex quipped, "You know if the media wouldn't give them more than a few sentences, they wouldn't get off on all the publicity they get...Oh great I'm starting to sound like Robyn."

"So what are you up to today?" Annie asked.

"I'm gonna go visit Ray and some of my friends." Alex replied, and asked, "Can I borrow your car?"

"I dunno..." Annie replied.

"Please. I'll even fill it up and..." Alex began.

"And you'll help me repaint my bathroom?" Annie asked.

"Yes." Alex replied.

"OK." Annie replied, "I'll hold you to it."

"You're the best Annie!" Alex said and hugged her big sister, "Just please remember to pick me up at four o'clock? And be sure you don't forget to put gas in it."

"Don't worry Annie, I've got you covered." Alex said.

--

Forge walked into the laboratory. The introduction to the staff that Lars Fredrickson, the Austrian chemist, had given him had been brief and the outlining of his responsibilities had been equally as brief.

He was trying to get his bearings about the lab when he noticed a young woman, about twenty-one or twenty-two with dark brown hair and eyes. She noticed him looking at her at about the same time and gave a tentative smile.

"Hi." Annie said, "Are you new here?"

"Yeah." Forge replied, "My name's Jonathan Silvercloud, but my friends call me Forge."

"My name's Annie Mack. I just started working here for my graduate internship."

"What's your degree in?" Forge asked.

"Chemistry." Annie replied.

_I certainly hope we have some chemistry for this assignment. _Forge thought, inwardly. Annie was definitely cute in a girl-next-door sort of way.

"Getting settled?" Annie asked.

"Yeah, Dr. Fredrickson was pretty through about showing me around this place." Forge replied, "He sounds like he's got a stick up his...?"

Annie had to giggle lightly at Forge's attempt at being polite. "He's not exactly a people person." Annie commiserated, "Listen, I've gotta get back to work. If you need anything, just ask."

"OK, thanks." Forge replied. _Note to self, figure out what she's up to Friday night. Perfect excuse, after all, she is Alex's big sister...Not to mention she's on the cute side._

—

The OSS/SOE safe house on the outskirts of Paradise Valley was a frenzy of activity. In the weeks since their arrival, the eight American and British covert operations soldiers had figured out how to make a radio transmitter to contact their world.

Flight Sergeant James Ballard, British Royal Air Force, sat at the kitchen table, one head on one ear of the headset, the other ear open in order to hear what was going on inside the house.

"Anything?" Lt. Connor asked.

"Nothing other than routine reports. Also we still can't seem to get a bead on where the German blokes are." Ballard replied.

Just then Anthony Hiram walked into the room, carrying his M1903A4 sharpshooter rifle cradled in his hand.

"Maybe you could be a little more careful with disposing of Nazi interlopers? Or maybe try to take them alive?" Connor began.

"No gratitude." Hiram replied, more than a trace of backwoods Southerner on his voice, "The bastard was trying to tap our communication line. Who knows what he might've heard from our transmissions and told the other Krauts. I took care of 'im with a head shot from three hundred yards."

"And alerted the folks on this world that we're here." Connor replied, waving the edition of the newspaper in front of him, "Less than two days after you kill the man the authorities find his body. Not to mention he could have given us a lead on where the German safe house is."

"Look, they sent us here to take out the Krauts. I was doing my part of the mission. That's why they wanted a guy who could use this rifle _sir._" Hiram said, emphasizing Connor's rank with a sneer and indicating his M1903A4 with it's 2.5x Weaver telescopic sight.

"But there are also reasons they want a Naval officer, a communication's expert, a demolition expert, a linguist, a covert operations specialist, a weapons expert, and an engineer on this mission as well." Connor said, "I know snipers are men born for individual fighting but you are an officer, you should see the bigger picture."

"That aside," Kaster said as he walked into the room, "I do believe the Nazis know we're here too, judging by the fact that their man is the John Doe on the front of the bloody newspaper."

"The question is, how much do the Nazi's know. After all their man was trying to eavesdrop on our radio traffic, and locate our direction finding equipment." Ballard replied.

"It's safe to assume the Krauts are already a step ahead of us." Connor replied.

"Not necessarily." Hiram replied, "I made sure I buried the dead Kraut far away from here."

"Anyway, let's scout for some secondary locations." Connor replied.

"I'll get it." Kaster replied.

"I'll help," Hiram replied, "The air in here's getting kinda stale, and anyway I want to do some more research on the town."

--

"So, do you need a ride home?" Forge asked, as he noticed Annie waiting in the lobby.

"No thanks. My sister Alex is on her way to go pick me up." Annie replied as she reached for her cell phone again.

"Older or younger?" Forge asked.

"Younger." Annie replied, "She just started her freshman year at NYU."

"New York, huh," Forge replied, "I just came from over there. Boy is it expensive."

"Well, Bayville isn't expensive. I heard real estate's cheap over there...but insurance more than makes up for what you save in real estate." Annie replied.

"Actually I'm from Bayville." Forge replied.

"And you actually sound like you're sane?" Annie replied with a raised eyebrow.

"You kind of get used to it after a while or you move out." Forge replied, sidestepping it.

"It seems like all the insanity over there comes from the Xavier Institute. I mean with mutant emus, dragons, and who knows what other things. I know fundamentally mutants are like us, but sometimes I wonder..." Annie replied, "Especially with all that weird terraforming."

Forge wanted to come to the defense of his fellows at the Institute, but maybe now wasn't the best time to tell Annie where exactly he came from in Bayville just yet. He was still trying to gain Annie's trust, maybe find out about this Alex...

As Forge was about to reply a Volkswagen Jetta pulled into the parking lot. "Well there's my ride. See you tomorrow."

"I'll see you then." Forge replied as he headed to his own car, a Toyota Tercel.

--

"So, this little shooting incident in the newspaper are due to your enemies?" Danielle Atron asked a blonde haired man, with a lean frame wearing a black leather trench coat.

"_Jawohl._ Yes." The blonde man replied.

"And you, Mr. Von Heissen, representing a team of Nazis from a world where World War II is being waged, and you're a member of that Nazi Germany's Abwehr (AN: German Intelligence)." Atron replied.

"Yes."Von Heissen replied.

"And as you can see the technology on our world far surpasses anything Nazi Germany possessed." Atron replied, "What can you bring us in return."

Von Heissen said, "First of all, ridding your world of the pests from our world."

"Pfah, I have security forces here that can take care of these OSS and SOE people you are talking about." Atron replied.

"But your forces don't quite have the experience of dealing with that sort anyway. And we can make some things financially worth your while." Von Heissen said, withdrawing a gold bar from his sleeve, with the eagle and swastika insignia of the Third Reich stamped onto it."

"And best of all it's tax free." Atron said, taking the bar and placing it in a small safe behind a painting on the wall.

"Also I believe we might have a common affiliation." Von Heissen replied, rolling up his sleeve. On his forearm was tattooed a swastika plus the insignia of the Heartless directly below it.

"I believe we might have a business deal. Vince, escort this gentleman out."

Vince nodded and led the German out of the office. When she was alone, Atron touched a small button, concealed on a brooch in her jacket. On her computer monitor the face of Syndrome appeared.

Atron activated her blue tooth and said, "We've made contact with some mysterious gentlemen from another world."

"I'm aware of that particular world. Don't worry about those German contacts, they're allied with the Heartless as well, and are keeping another threat to our operation contained in their dimension." Syndrome replied.

"What threat?" Danielle asked.

"No need to concern yourself. I want you to provide me more samples of GC 161, and find that kid that was infected years ago. I believe I have some scientist friends, among them a certain Dr. Mindbender, that would like to make an acquaintance." Syndrome replied.

"I assume that I would get a share of the benefits?" Atron asked.

"Far more than you could ask for." Syndrome replied, before the monitor blanked out.

—

"So what did you find, Polly?" Althea asked. She and Shipwreck were hanging around the kitchen.

"Awk! Xavier sent Forge on a secret mission. A weird combination of Q and James Bond."

Shipwreck laughed, "Forge a spy? Wow..."

"That's not all, awk!" Polly said, "Xavier is trying to recruit someone new in Paradise Valley..."

"Not if we have anything to do with it." Shipwreck said, a weird gleam in his eye...

--

TBC


	2. Meeting of the Minds

Meeting of the Minds

Disclaimer: Same as before. I remember from Red Witch's universe that Pyro wrote more than a few novels that were hugely popular. I figured his real name is not yet known and he makes money for Magneto's organization in that venue.

Author's Notes: Welcome back to the world of fanfiction RogueFanKC! Love the chapter you put up! Also, the characters of Derrick, Margot, and Moki are characters from the '80s cartoon the Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible.

--

"I'm not stalking you, I swear..." Forge said, with a light chuckle as he reached for the issue of Inventor's Quarterly at the Paradise Valley Barnes and Noble, he'd run into Annie at the magazine stand. _Well, kinda, but not because I'm obsessed or anything, it's because it's my mission._

"Well, you at least have good taste." Annie said as she reached for the same issue.

"Looks like only one issue." Forge said, "Ladies first."

Annie beamed, "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Forge replied.

"I can see you're a big fan of the magazine though," Annie said, "And I do kinda feel bad for taking it from you."

"I let you have it." Forge replied.

"Well, I'll compensate you, how about a cup of coffee?" Annie replied.

"I'll drink to that." Forge replied.

The two headed to the Barnes and Noble coffee shop and Annie bought coffee for both of them. They sat down to talk.

"So what brings you here all the way from New York?" Annie asked.

"I heard that Paradise Valley was the land of sun and science and figured I'd give it a shot." Forge replied.

"And you got tired of things blowing up every fifteen seconds in Bayville." Annie replied.

Forge chuckled, "Touche."

Forge noted, "Has anything exciting ever happened in Paradise Valley?"

Annie was a taken aback slightly but recovered, with a pleasant smile, "Nope, just plain old boring Paradise Valley."

Forge didn't want to press the matter and lose Annie entirely by asking her about Alex and strange powers and something a little more pressing was happening. He noticed someone sitting in the far corner of the café, seemingly engrossed in a book, but not really. Forge took notice of the stranger. Dark brown hair and eyes, lean construction, wearing a leather flight jacket.

"Excuse me." Forge said, "I'll be right back."

"OK." Annie said.

Forge headed for the bathroom area and hid in the alcove, taking his camera phone and discreetly taking a photograph of the man. He didn't look like anyone from G.I. Joe or any known ACME operatives, but he'd send Xavier the pictures and hopefully Professor X could even this whole thing out.

As he stood in the doorway he noticed another problem present itself. _Shit. _Forge thought. Right there was a banner that read: Book Signing. The Vampire Romances Anthology by John Allerdyce. _Pyro's hanging around here. Of all the people I need to blow my cover…_

Forge made his way back to the table he was sitting with Annie at when he noticed the book she had just gotten. "Such a weird book series, I know." Annie said, "But Alex is a big fan of his work and I figured I'd get her a little present for her birthday, a signed copy."

_If Pyro sees me, my cover is blown for sure. _Forge thought.

Little did Forge know that things were about to get a bit more complicated.

Across the street, hiding in the skeleton of a half constructed building across the street a marksman lay in hiding.

The Nazi Abwehr agent Pieter Lang leveled the Mauser K.98 sniper rifle. The magnification of the 6x Zeiss telescopic sight was incredible and he could see the pudgy American operative from that OSS cell that was tracking his own men.

Carefully he leveled the crosshair reticule of the telescopic sight on the fat American's head, just below the ear. He squeezed the trigger, pressing it steadily, smoothly, as he breathed out the deep breath and then…CRACK!

The 7.92mm Mauser round cracked from the weapon and struck the American agent in the head, causing him to pitch forward and hit the ground.

Forge was about to concoct an excuse to tell Annie a contrived excuse why he had to get out of there in a hurry when he saw the man standing outside the café pitch forward in a shower of blood, brains and bone fragments from his skull.

"Oh my God…"Annie moaned. Forge had seen the whole thing from the corner of his eye. Annie, had, however, seen the entire thing as though she was watching a movie in 3D gore-a-rama.

Forge sprang into action and dragged Annie out of the line of fire. For all he knew the gunman had another target…Annie.

"Damn it…" Hiram muttered as he saw Pete Goode strike the ground. It was definitely a Kraut sniper that got him. He made his way out of the area through several back alleys, taking a roundabout route to the safe house.

_Should've known the pricks would have a marksman out there._ Anthony Hiram thought. The Colt 1911A1 .45 hidden under his jacket wasn't going to do shit against that sniper. With that he began to disappear into the crowd of frightened people, trying to get as far away from all this as possible.

--

It was several hours later that the Paradise Valley Police Department had finally finished interviewing all the witnesses and taking down the crime scene.

Agent Kyle Brody stood in the morgue as the medical examiner finished his investigation. "Well no ID papers or anything on this guy at all. Another John Doe, killed in almost the same way." The ME said.

"What do you mean almost?" Kyle replied.

"Both victims were killed with head shots from a high powered rifle." The Medical Examiner said, "One of them was killed by a .30-06 round, according to ballistics…this one, according to the lab, was killed by a 7.92mm round."

"7.92, as in 7.92 Mauser? A World War II round?" Kyle asked.

"7.92 are still in use today." The Medical Examiner replied, "For hunting rounds."

"Yeah, for what sort of game, human beings?" Brody replied.

"Usually heavier boned game, like pronghorns and mule deer which live in this area." The ME replied.

Brody wrote in his small notepad: high powered rifles. More than one shooter? Ex-military or target shooting type?

"Let me know if anything turns up." Brody replied.

"Sure." The ME replied.

--

"What the hell happened?" Connor said as Anthony Hiram ran in.

"Krauts got a sniper. Goode's down…right in public." Hiram replied.

"That must mean the bloody Krauts have the support of the chaps on this world already." Kaster began.

Connor looked briefly surprised but then began, "No, that can't be. Maybe they've got just as much a loose cannon with their sniper as we have with ours…"

"If that was some kind of personal attack you arrogant snot, I'll be glad to repay you in kind, rank irrelevant!" Hiram replied.

"Knock it off, the lot of you." Kaster replied, "Look, this is a bad spot we're in. We don't need to make things worse by fighting with each other."

Ignoring Kaster, Connor said, "Where are you going…"

"To get my rifle. I'm gonna find this sonofabitch before he kills any more of our guys." Hiram replied as he took his M1903A4 Springfield from a nearby closet. He was already detaching the smaller, US Army issue 2.5x telescopic sight. He pulled a long, leather case that might have held a pool shark's favorite pool cue.

"What's that?" Leeds asked.

"Unertl 8x scope for my thirty-aught-six." Hiram replied.

"You're not going anywhere." Connor said.

"If that sonofabitch followed me here, I'm gonna get rid of our varmint problem." Hiram replied as he stalked out of the house.

"Can someone relieve me?" Flight Sergeant Ballard said, "I'm going out to have a fag (author's note: British slang for cigarette)."

Kaster said, "I've got you."

--

Forge dialed the Xavier Institute on his cell phone when he was calmer, "Professor, we have trouble. I just started making inroads with Annie Mack when someone got shot outside of the café we were talking at."

"Who was shot Forge?" Xavier asked.

"I don't know. Can you put Multiple on line?" Forge asked.

"Easier said than done..." Xavier said.

BOOM!

"What exploded?" Forge asked.

"Let's say Trinity is at the Institute and getting a hold of Multiple won't be easy." Xavier said.

"Ow." Forge winced.

"An understatement if I ever heard one." Xavier replied, "What is it you wish to look up?"

"I need Multiple to hack into the Paradise Valley Medical Examiner database, there have been two shootings here I'm trying to figure out." Forge replied.

"I'll have Multiple find out for you." Xavier replied.

--

"Oh my God, Annie, that's horrible." Alex said, as the two of them sat in Annie's apartment. Annie looked pale, ashen, "Are you OK?"

"Alex, a man got shot a glass window away from me, I'm not in the vicinity of OK!" Annie snapped.

Alex looked hurt, somewhat before Annie apologized, "I'm sorry, Alex. It's been a stressful day, I didn't mean to snap at you."

"I understand, Annie. You must be terrified." Alex said.

Annie nodded, "But there was one thing, the new guy at work, Jon. When the shot rang out, he actually threw himself on top of me to shield me."

"That's noble of him." Alex began and started to smile, "Do I sense a potential match made at work here?"

"Alex, you picked a heck of a time to bring that up." Annie replied.

"Hey, some of the best romances come from intense and stressful situations. Isn't that what Sandra Bullock said." Alex replied.

"Alex," Annie replied, "This isn't some movie, this is real life."

"I know. And on another side, I'm freaked out. Maybe someone is trying to kill you specifically." Alex said.

"But why?"Annie asked.

"Maybe because of GC161?" Alex offered.

"But why now? Did they just find out?" Annie asked, "And if they're from the Plant, there's no sign, nothing suspicious is going on?"

"I don't know Annie." Alex said.

--

_So that was their hideout. _The German sniper, Pieter Lang, thought as he sighted his target's house. He had followed the American, after he'd killed one of his party.

From what he saw of one of the two Americans from the observation party he'd followed hours ago, one of them was definitely a sniper, a trained marksman at the very least because he followed mannerisms any trained sniper would, evading, never making straight paths back to the hide.

_Not trained enough._ Lang thought with an ironic grin. Since 1939 he'd been against the best that the Allies had to offer. Against British and French snipers in the blitzkrieg during the retreat to Dunkirk. Against Russian marksmen on the worst battlefields of the Eastern Front. And against the Americans and Commonwealth snipers again in Sicily and Italy.

Of the nearly three-hundred and seventeen kills he had acquired, over eighty percent had never known he was there. And of those twenty-five percent who were aware of his presence, all of them were enemy snipers that enemy commanders had sent to kill him.

He steadied the Mauser Kar. 98K on his shoulder, savoring the feeling of its walnut stock. Since he'd been selected for the Waffen SS, the elite fighting arm of the Reich, he had been assigned as a sniper. Trained since boyhood in the ways of the Reich and how to best serve her as a marksman, Lang was contemptuous of all other nations' ways of training snipers.

He found the American way to be rather ad hoc, foolish, and ultimately doomed to failure. Selecting those who had prior experience with weapons or ability to shoot expertly and simply assigning them a telescopic rifle with maybe a few days' training was foolhardiness at its best. It was only marginally improved over the Russian method. Shooting skill was but one part of the sniper's mosaic, had they not learned from the First World War? It was the ability to hunt that was primary. Any idiot could learn to shoot accurately...

Lang sighted one of the OSS party, standing outside smoking a cigarette. Seven-hundred and fifteen meters, he estimated no wind. He dialed the telescopic sight in to the distance and verified that the man he was aiming at wasn't the OSS turncoat he'd been instructed not to kill. It wasn't.

He sighted just below the man's collarbone, being on a higher vantage point than his target. Always subtract when higher up than his target. He gently squeezed the trigger. At the aim point, if he erred, he would hit the target in the throat or head, guaranteed fatalities.

CRACK! The Mauser cracked loudly and the smoker pitched backward, splattering a blood smear into the wall of the house as the bullet rattled through his body right under his collarbone.

Lang waited for a long while. Several more of the OSS team ran out of the house and for a moment he was tempted to pick another one of them off, but in this case caution was in order. There was still the matter of the American sniper on the OSS team. That was the next priority.

--

"God damn it! Where did that come from?" Corporal Leeds shouted as Flight Sergeant Ballard hit the ground.

"He was down before we heard the shot." Anthony Hiram replied, "I wouldn't head out there, boys, this sniper's got some talent."

_That sonofabitch followed me back. _Hiram thought and pointed towards a point on the surrounding hillside. "That's where I'd be. About seven to eight hundred yards…hell of a shot for a one-shot offing."

"Where are you going?" Connor asked.

"I'm going after that bastard and put a thirty-aught-six round right through his sauerkraut eater's ass." Hiram replied.

"You'll do no such thing. That sniper's long gone by now, telling the others where we are right this second." Connor replied.

"Look, asshole, you know exactly one thing about sniping: Jack shit!" Hiram replied.

"Look, you're our best chance of killing that man." Connor replied, "If he gets you trying to pick him off, then we're up shit creek."

"I can get him, Connor. Give me some time and a good line of sight." Hiram replied.

"Absolutely not." Connor replied as he headed off to try and take charge of the situation. It was then that 1st Lieutenant Hiram snuck off into the bush.

--

"GC-161. I keep finding references to it all the time." Arcade said as he glanced at Althea.

"What is it?" Althea asked.

"According to the files I hacked, it was intended as a weight loss drug, but research was halted after a chemical spill a few years ago." Arcade said.

"Interesting." Althea asked, "Did the files specify anything else?"

"Only that the accident appeared to have been caused by a kid. There were efforts to locate him or her, but they seem to still be ongoing and the GC-161 project was put on hold." Arcade said and furrowed his brow.

"What?" Althea asked.

"They still have tons of that stuff in their warehouses. Under lock and key and tightest security." Arcade remarked.

"Huh, I wonder why that is?" Althea asked.

"One more list of questions for our visit to Paradise Valley." Arcade said, "We are going, aren't we?"

"We'll see what Roadblock and my Dad's meeting with Hawk turns up. But I'd be ready to go if I were you. Keep seeing if you can't research more about the recent Paradise Valley homicides, see if any of the John Does are connected with this GC-161 case. Something tells me this is gonna play a big part in our visit." Althea replied.

--

Captain Lionel Joseph Ringler, an Intelligence Officer attached to the US Army's 2nd Infantry Division pored over the latest information. According to his South Korean counterpart, Captain Lim Seu-Lo, it appeared that North Korean forces all over the DMZ were disappearing into shielded trenches and bunkers.

Not even one sentry stood his post on the DMZ. That was clear. Usually each South Korean or American sentry on the border had in his sight at least one North Korean soldier standing his post.

But almost a week ago the North Korean detachment conducted its evening parade and simply vanished into its barracks.

He pored over a copy of the Lightfoot Report, written by an old colleague of his, Bryce Lightfoot a few months ago. It seemed almost too fanciful to be true. The North Koreans collaborating with not just COBRA but also this group called Organization XIII and these weird Heart stealing monsters called Heartless? But Bryce's report had photographic evidence, writings from this fellow named Ansem, and even some dossiers on some NKPA group called the 'Black Dragons', members of North Korea's feared black operations force.

He stepped out of his office, running into Major Ned Bollinger, Battalion Executive Officer of 2nd Battalion.

"Still chasing that theory that the North is planning an invasion." Bollinger said.

"Yes sir." Ringler said.

"They say the same thing every time Kim Jong-Il decides to indulge in some pissy saber rattling." Bollinger said.

"Yes sir, but I don't believe this is one of those times." Ringler replied.

"What makes you say that?" Bollinger said.

"Look at the photos yourself, sir." Ringler said, showing an 8.5 x 11" picture. In it, two South Korean soldiers stared across a deserted courtyard. The guard posts where North Korean soldiers in their mustard brown uniforms and polished brass stood empty.

"There hasn't been evidence of any NKPA activity at all. No unusual troop or vehicular movements. No ships getting underway or aircraft fueling..." Bollinger said.

"Still, major, I maintain this latest phenomenon as unusual troop movement." Ringler replied.

"Ringler, you realize that you'd better get more than just disappearing North Korean soldiers as evidence if you're gonna submit this up the chain of command." Bollinger replied, "Frankly Battalion Staff's getting tired of paranoid rantings all over the writings of some CIA spook..."

"I've known said spook for years, sir, and know he doesn't give warnings like that in jest." Ringler replied.

"I never said Lightfoot wasn't a credible source. It's just that members of the brass have been shooting his report to pieces." Bollinger replied.

"I'm going to talk to Captain Lo up the road about his findings." Ringler replied.

"Put in your next report, Lionel..." Bollinger replied.

"Yes sir." Ringler said as he walked out of the office to a waiting Humvee.

--

"So this mysterious chemical in Paradise Valley could be helpful or harmful for my cause. It doesn't seem like this lead has any worth." Magneto said as he talked over the phone.

"It could be dangerous in the right hands. I've seen that it has an effect on human molecular structure." Mystique replied.

"Really, when did you witness this incident?" Magneto asked.

"I didn't." Mystique said, "But from files at Paradise Valley's Chemical Plant that I've hacked, I've seen references to an accident a number of years ago."

"Do you know who the victim was?" Magneto asked.

"No. The investigation is still open, but there have been no leads on the affected child for nearly six years." Mystique replied.

"Hmm," Magneto says, "A molecular structure altering chemical. It could be useful for my schemes, I should like to know the name of this compound."

"It is called GC-161." Mystique replied.

"Very well, keep researching this mysterious compound and relay your information to me. I assume you've got a well placed cover?" Magneto replied.

"Yes. As a Dr. Fredrickson, a supervisor at the plant." Mystique replied.

"See to it you remain undetected..." Magneto replies, "Until the opportune moment..."

--

"Another report from Army Intelligence." Lady Jaye said as she walked into Hawk's office.

"More on the Middle East?" Hawk asked.

"No. Korea. It's corroborating the Lightfoot Report. North Korean forces along the border have been disappearing for months. It seems like North of the DMZ and South of the Yalu River the country has become a ghost town." Lady Jaye replied.

"This CPT Ringler seems to be coming to the same conclusion, though he only has a scope of access involving the DMZ and the area immediately north of it." Hawk replied.

"Also my contacts in both our CIA and the South Korean CIA are showing less and less foot and vehicle traffic in North Korea." Lady Jaye replied, "No military traffic at all, just static on any electronic transmissions."

"It sounds like the North Koreans are preparing for an invasion." Hawk said.

"I disagree." Jaye replied, "It sounds almost as though they're preparing to be invaded."

"The Lightfoot Report seems to state that some elements of the North Korean government are siding with the Heartless." Hawk said, "So they could be preparing for war in underground shelters."

"If that's the case, then our estimates of the size and depth of the complexes was grossly inaccurate." Lady Jaye replied, "But we still can't rule out that the North Koreans are just as afraid of an Omnidroid attack as anyone else. They started to go to ground shortly after the Omnidroid destroyed Bandar Abbas."

"Then I wonder, is there dissension in the North Korean ranks? Perhaps this faction, this Black Dragon unit that Lightfoot encountered on his journey were renegades..." Hawk replied.

"Other than rumors and testimonies of a few Korean War ex-POWs from the 1950s there really isn't much about this North Korean organization. According to Lightfoot's report he estimates that they're directly commanded by someone high up in the North Korean food chain, if not by Kim Jong-Il himself." Lady Jaye replied, "The best I can estimate is that this Black Dragon organization was formed sometime after North Korea was formed as a state and was tasked with gathering intelligence and assassinating key enemy personnel and forming a sort of think tank for the Communist Party."

"What of CPT Ringler?" Hawk said.

"I've gotten in contact with him, and he promised to compare notes with me." Lady Jaye replied.

"Good." Hawk said.

"I'll keep you posted on whatever else I find, sir." Lady Jaye replied.

--

Moki moved his hand back to the foregrip of his M16A2 rifle as he stood beside his Sufa jeep. He now was a member of the 585th Bedouin Desert Recon Battalion, far removed from his boyhood at the archaeological sites where he would be amongst foreign archaeologists and their families when his tribe would provide labor.

His three closest friends were family members of the archaeologists. Margot had died many years ago at the last Intifada, Derrick had taken her loss hard, and was living somewhere in America as a professor.

Ted he had seen a few years ago, haunted by deeds he couldn't talk about. He knew YAMAS and other _mistaravim_ or infiltration units had seen heavy action fighting the Intifada. But based on his last e-mail exchanges with his old friend, it seemed that he'd found a measurement of peace. Some woman named Paige or something like that had entered his life.

Moki quit his musing on his old friends as he recalled events of a very recent vintage. MAGAV units had been pulled back to forming a perimeter around the town of Rafah after insurgent violence in the city had risen to a point that the IDF had to intervene.

First riots had broken out in the town after Heartless had been spotted. The rioters were enraged at both the Palestinian police and the MAGAV for failing to protect them. Behind them the Hamas militants actively encouraged their actions. Despite repeated actions by YAMAS and other MAGAV forces to break the riots, they only worsened. The rioters had overwhelmed a Palestinian Police armory and took weapons from there.

The MAGAV had managed to contain the insurgents in the city before the IDF reaction forces appeared and began their entry into Rafah.

Moki could hear mortars and artillery being fired into the town. So far the IDF had penetrated the outer defenses, which consisted largely of inexperienced townspeople who only recently liberated weapons from their own Palestinian police forces. That fighting was comparatively easy.

Now the Israeli forces were encountering hardline Hamas militants and ex-Palestinian Police officers who had thrown their lots in with the insurgents. The distant explosion of another IED sounded.

To add to the battle, there were Heartless roaming the city, attacking Palestinian and Israeli alike.

Moki took a long swallow of water as the sun set. His mission in all this was to be part of a roaming blocking force hunting Heartless or Palestinian fighters attempting to reinforce Rafah by night. The 585th Bedouin Desert Recon Battalion was best suited for this, trained to fight and gather intelligence on enemies in the desert terrain that Bedouins knew best.

So far his unit had destroyed one group of marauding Heartless by ambush, and detained three armed Palestinians attempting to join the Rafah fighters.

Sa'id and Moshed were currently examining tracks in the sand. They called to him and Moki got on the radio to inform command that more Heartless infiltrators were being spotted coming through the desert before heading in pursuit after them.

Through the night vision goggles Moki could see two other Sufa jeeps forming up beside him. His jeep moved to the southern flank of the Heartless, wheeling towards them, forcing them to cluster together instinctively.

It was like herding sheep. It was a tactic that had been worked out. One vehicle would circle the group, shooting into it, forcing it to turn a certain direction, while the other two would also cut off retreats or pursue the group in a desired direction, typically to an ambush.

As they circled or drove in to attack the small band of Heartless, the number of Heartless was reduced bit by bit until nothing remained. The vehicles stopped. One provided security while the soldiers in the other two dismounted, inspecting the dead Heartless before shooting each one in the head with a single bullet to confirm death.

--

"It seems that chaos is spreading throughout the world." Demyx remarked.

"Just as planned." Vexen said, "After all, calculated chaos was the intent of the phase."

"That Omnidroid assault on Bandar Abbas, Iran killed two birds with one stone. Brilliant." Larxene replied, "You have the Middle East lit aflame. Everyone is pointing fingers. The Iranians have attacked two merchant ships based on rumors that comandeered tankers loaded with Heartless would be sent towards their shores."

"Demyx, I must say, I have to commend you for causing those two ships to have those steering casualties and steer towards Iranian territorial seas." Vexen added, "That resulted in two confrontations between the Royal Navy and United States Navy against the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps Navy."

"Tensions are rising to the boiling point elsewhere in the Middle East as well. The Israelis and Palestinians are fighting each other again, blaming each other for the current Heartless problem." Demyx replied.

"Let us not forget North Korea." Vexen replied, "Another way to keep our foes off balance until the overt phase begins."

"COBRA has been helping to bolster the North Korean forces so they can launch Operation Reunity." Demyx replied.

"Even better. And speaking of North Koreans..." Larxene said. Walking into the room was Colonel Bummun Hien, the leader of the North Korean Black Dragon Commando Unit.

"Our first phase is complete. We have totally concealed ourselves from the South and from the Americans." Hien replied.

"Very good." Vexen replied.

"We are ready for the second phase, the terror..." Hien replied, "The list of the fifty-one targets has been drawn up already and our special forces units are beginning to plan their infiltration and assaults."

Vexen read the list, numerous South Korean public figures and leaders to be assassinated. "Creating confusion and mayhem in the South Korean rear. Brilliant."

"We will start with the dignitaries on the list, and start progressing even more daring and complex assaults before we roll in triumph across the 38th Parallel." Hien replied.

"Very good. Keep the South Koreans as unbalanced as possible. Keep them on a high state of alert, worrying about commandoes to the rear as they try to unlock why it seems that your population has hidden in the underground complexes you've created." Vexen replied, "And in this new world we will create, your nation will be among the first we reward with prominence and remaining intact while others burn..."

Hien nodded as Vexen opened a portal of darkness for him to pass through and return to North Korea.

"And speaking of terrorism, the Friends of Humanity have been planning some missions against recent Mutant Rights Rallies, including one to be held at EPCOT Center in Orlando." Demyx added.

"And they've continued their attacks on Wiccans and Mutants?" Vexen replied, "I've noticed this recent trend of beating up Wicca as well. Though they don't know the Halliwells are witches, yet, they have been given misinformation that Wiccans are colluding with Mutants, especially those of Magneto's ilk..."

"That will add fuel to Stryker's fire. The Superior will be most pleased." Larxene said.

"Pawns serve their uses. Even the North Koreans. Of course they will be rewarded with prominence, long enough to turn their noses up to a devastated world before we dash their brains in and take their hearts as well." Demyx replied.

"Of course. But getting there will be an endeavor in and of itself, even with Syndrome's aid." Vexen replied.

"So sorry to hear of your prototype's destruction." Axel said.

"It just gives me more to work with to create even more monstrous creations." Vexen said. Below them in the observation pen an acklay shrieked as it tried to attack a rancor in an adjacent pen through the forcefield between them.

"Those creatures from Universe 151 are quite fascinating." Axel said, "Formidable and deadly in and of themselves, but hybridized with Heartless they could be formidable indeed."

"Yes, for the Invasion phase of our operation a few Acklay-Heartless and Rancor-Heartless hybrids are planned." Vexen replied.

"I know the DNA from those creatures would be invaluable to Mindbender, one of our pawns in COBRA." Vexen continued, "And he has given me a very interesting tidbit of information. In Paradise Valley there exists a compound called GC-161 that has amazing molecular altering properties."

"Really. So that would solve your puzzle of creating the Infiltrator Nobodies." Larxene said.

"Yes. Superior to synthoids because they can't be detected by any known method that G.I. Joe has created over the years." Vexen replied.

"Perfect for this terrorism phase." Demyx said, "Now we must see about getting ourselves a sample of that GC-161 without revealing our presence to this world just yet. Let them have their scrap of information in that Lightfoot report, as long as we remain unconfirmed rumors until it's too late this conquest will be even sweeter..."

"Noted. But I would love to get a hold of that supposed GC-161 contaminated youth that I have heard rumors of." Larxene replied.

"Well, I think that a sample will be more than sufficient...for now." Vexen replied.

--

To be Continued.


	3. The Misfits Arrive

The Misfits Arrive

Disclaimer: Same as before. I couldn't resist a cameo by a certain walking, talking creature of the cat variety. Meowth actually is going to have a role in this story. Also this takes place sometime before Ted proposes to Paige in my Misfit Holidays fic.

---

"So are we're going to Paradise Valley or what?" Althea asked.

"We're going." Roadblock said, "Assemble the team and we'll go brief. And remember not to cause Paradise Valley any grief."

"With this group, it's gonna be hard to do." Althea replied.

Both Althea and Roadblock were alerted by a loud commotion outside.

"Guys! Guys! Come quick!" Spyder shouted from outside.

Klondike had cornered a creature, that looked like a cat. The thing looked like a cream colored cat, but it had two whisker like projections atop its head and an oval gold coin-like projection between them. It had a brown tail tip and feet, and it spoke as Klondike barked and wooed at it.

"Roo woo woo woo woo!" Klondike said.

"Ah get back ya mutt!" the thing said in a Brooklyn accent swinging claws, Klondike snapped his jaws, narrowly missing the thing's paws.

"Woo woo woo wooo woo!" Klodike said.

The thing swiped again and Klondike grabbed a hold of a paw in it's jaws. "Klondike! Let go! Leave it!" Ted shouted.

Klondike released the creature. "What on earth is that thing?"

"Foist of all, I'm not a thing, I'm a Meowth."

"A what? How in God's name does an alley cat learn to talk?" Ted asked.

"Do you think it's a COBRA experiment?" Spyder asked.

"Or another visitor from another dimension."Althea asked.

Meowth was determined not to show that he was hurt, that the bite of the gray furred mongrel had injured it. Not to mention that he was far more hungry, tired, and worn out than when he had lived as a stray on the streets.

"Roo woo woo woo woo! GRRRR!!" Klondike said.

"Ah ah! Klondike..." Ted replied.

"COBRA? What's that? All I know was I was mindin' my own business and then I get sucked into dis weihd pohtal and then I'm being chased around by the " Meowth began.

"We'd better get you to Airtight." Althea said, "Come on...I gotcha..."

"Hey, I can walk...." Meowth said, taking two steps and collapsing.

"You look like you've been through hell." Althea said as she picked Meowth up by the scruff of the neck, "Let's get you to Airtight, he's like our vet."

Meowth couldn't think of any witty quips or anything else before he passed out from exhaustion.

---

"Looks like he's suffering from the effects of malnutrition, exhaustion and exposure." Airtight said, "As far as I can tell his vitals are similar to those of the domestic housecat, but this being a totally new species I can't really tell."

Meowth stirred and groaned. "Cole...Protect...Wielder..."

"We've gotta get Lance over here, pronto." Lifeline agreed.

"I'll get right on it." Althea said.

Throughout it all, Meowth faded in and out of consciousness. Images and events and sounds played through his head in a kaleidoscope of memories. He could hear the sounds of battle in the distance. But these weren't just ordinary Pokemon battles, but the struggle his world was waging against the Heartless.

Every trainer from every faction had united to battle the Heartless. Even Team Rocket had put its nefarious scheming aside and put its trainers and Pokemon at the disposal of the militia defending their homeland. Meowth had fought in five major battles all over the Johto Islands before _it_ had occurred.

Defending the Junction Road was the job of Meowth's group, a mixed bag of militia and Team Rocket forces under the command of Lieutenant Surge. The Heartless were coming up the road to pursue fleeing refugees fleeing through one of Johto's largest road junctions...

"_Pidgeotto, Quick Attack! Now!" A trainer shouted. _

_The Pidgeotto dove and repeatedly attack three Soldier Heartless, killing them by breaking their skulls. An Air Soldier dove from the skies and jumped the Pidgeotto, jumping on it's back and forcing it to the ground where three Soldier Heartless stomped on it._

_The young female trainer watched in anguished horror as her Pokemon was being killed off. "Primeape! Rage attack!" A Primeape jumped on the Air Soldier and broke it's back with a drop kick and attacked the Soldier Heartless, using the severed arm of one of the creatures as a club._

"_Voltorb! Thundershock!"_

"_Lieutenant! The flank's gonna fold!" one militiaman shouted, carrying a wounded Persian in his arms, "All my Pokemon are either dead or too wounded..." _

_James let out a scream of agony as he was lifted, screaming into the air by three Air Soldier Heartless. Meowth leapt onto the back of one Air Soldier, clawing at the creature's midsection, disemboweling it. Another Air Soldier launched a devastating kick, which cracked Meowth's left ribs and caused him to fall. As he hit the ground and blacked out, he saw the glowing heart shape as James lost his heart..._

_When he came to several hours later, the battle had died down. The bodies of dead Pokemon and Trainers littered the junction. The ferry to the next island burned in the distance. The militia had destroyed it, to deny the Heartless its use. _

_Meowth heard sounds of assorted militia groups or even individual trainers battling the Heartless. He staggered to his feet, feeling his side. His legs were intact, but his ribs were another story. They felt like they were on fire._

_As he fled, feeling less like a cat and more like a rat, for fleeing away from the battle a lone figure blocked his path. Before him stood a man dressed somewhat casually for the affair..._

_He remembered seeing the same man arguing with a fellow who looked like a red mummy. They were talking about something called 'Keyblade'. He only remembered the guy in the suit got angry when the red mummy with the cape called him Belthazor. _

Meowth opened an eye cautiously. He could see the young man with black hair and the black t-shirt and jeans walk into the room. From when the mummy guy, DiZ or something like that, waved his hand in front of his face he knew it was the wielder of the Keyblade.

"Lance..." Meowth said before collapsing back into unconsciousness. The EKG started to fade.

"Brumby!" Lance shouted.

The orbs of a Whitelighter shimmered as Brumby appeared. "He's fading! We're losing him. Epinephrine, now!" Airtight said.

"I don't know enough about his physiology. I could kill him if I use it." Lifeline replied.

"Heal him..." Lance said.

Brumby walked over to Meowth's bedside. Closing his eyes he placed his hand over Meowth's forehead and began to allow the healing energy of a Whitelighter to flow through the creature.

Meowth's heart rate began to stabilize and his breathing became less labored. He opened his eyes slowly, "Wh-what happened."

"Rest for now...answers will be coming." Brumby said.

---

Ted knelt at the base chapel, his Squad Advanced Marksman Rifle (SAM-R) on his person as he knelt in front of a small shrine to the Virgin Mary. _He who blessed our Fathers Abraham, Issac and Jacob may he bless the fighters of the Israeli Defense Force..._The Canadian Israeli thought.

He had been praying his rosary for almost twenty minutes when he saw the glowing essences of a Whitelighter. The Israeli crossed himself and stood to see Paige. He smiled broadly as he took her in his arms and lightly kissed her.

"Hey." Paige said softly, "I came to see you..."

"Yeah. I've actually got a mission soon." Ted replied, "I just stopped off at the chapel before the mission. And it really is great to see you..."

Ted noticed the small silver angel pendant he'd bought for Paige around her neck and one other thing. The other half of his dog tag. Paige noticed his glance.

"I kept worrying I'd lose your dog tag, especially after that night." Paige replied, "I couldn't lose something that reminded me of you. And then you gave me that angel pendant..."

"And you are my angel." Ted replied, "I can't say it enough times. If it hadn't been for you I would likely have eaten a bullet...after all the nightmares of the war..."

"Ted. I'm no angel...I'm just a woman who loves you very much." Paige replied.

"You mean the world to me, Paige. And much more." Ted replied, "I love you, my Angel."

Paige sniffed slightly, feeling slightly overwhelmed as she put her arms around Ted. A little difficult a task considering he had his weapon, but she managed. "Take care of yourself..."

"Always." Ted replied.

Paige watched Ted walk from the Chapel back towards the Misfit house before she orbed away. She felt that awful ache of worry she always felt whenever he was due to go on a mission. She lightly fingered the angel pendent and dog tag. She gazed at the engagement ring on her finger and felt that same ache of worry again.

While not especially religious herself Paige said a silent prayer of her own, "He who blessed our forefathers Abraham, Issac, and Jacob please bless the soldiers of Israel..."

_In particular my Israeli soldier. _Paige thought.

---

"Remember, this is a standard observation mission." Low Light said.

Ted nodded, "Understood."

"Are you sure?" Low Light said.

"You don't need to talk to me like I'm a sniper recruit." Ted snapped back.

"You don't need to snap back like that." Low Light replied.

"Sorry. A lot on my mind." Ted replied.

"Keep your mind on the mission." Low Light replied, and his face softened slightly, "If it's about Paige, remember the positives to keep you going."

Ted nodded laconically as they tapped their Mass Device watches which put them on the outskirts of the Paradise Valley Chemical Planet.

---

Forge walked with Annie to her car after a late night at the plant. "Things haven't exactly been safe around here." Forge explained.

Ordinarily Annie would have been annoyed by Forge's attentions to her, but this time his attentions weren't too doting. Actually she had been feeling uncomfortable for at least the past couple of days, especially since that sniper incident.

"Is it just me or has Dr. Fredrickson been working us hard?" Forge asked.

"Fredrickson's always been that way." Annie smiled wanly.

"What's with this thing for GC 161? Wasn't that an old project." Forge asked.

Annie seemed to freeze for a minute before regaining her composure. "Fredrickson's always had a fascination for obscure and old projects. He thinks he can see details in long abandoned projects that were overlooked."

Forge noted Annie's quick freeze and was about to comment when he noticed several men in black clothes piling into the back of a storage truck. It was when he noticed guns in their hands that he grabbed a hold of Annie and pushed her back.

"Wh-" Annie began.

"Shh!" Forge said, "There are men with guns around the corner going into that truck.

The vehicle started and began to drive off and Forge turned to face Annie, seeing she was blushing red. He noticed why in a millisecond. His left hand was cupped directly over Annie's left breast.

"Oh crap...I'm sorry." Forge said.

"It's alright. Men with guns?" Annie said.

"Yeah. But they were weird ones. Like 1940s guns or something..." Forge said.

"1940s guns?" Annie asked.

"I'm weirded out too. But have you noticed Danielle's been keeping some weird company." Forge replied.

"Some German guys. But they never seem to go anywhere in the labs. I was delivering a memo to her office for Fredrickson when I noticed them." Annie replied.

"When was this?" Forge asked.

"Just today. Why do you ask?" Annie replied.

Little did the two of them know that they were being watched.

---

The world was sharp and clear through the telescopic sight. That much the man who's unerring eye peered behind them knew.

He watched as two more people who appeared to be Paradise Valley Chemical Plant employees. They walked together, talking for a moment until one of them, the male Native American, pushed the female aside. His hand was cupped across her left breast but the touch appeared to be an accident because he seemed to be apologizing rather profusely.

He saw the armed men loading into the back of a large van. What was weird about those guys were the 1940s era weapons and the black clothes.

But neither the two employees nor the 1940s commandos were his targets. The target was working late. Danielle Atron. Now wasn't the time to kill her. Even with a halfway decent shot.

It was time to observe, to note her routine and then it would be time to fire the fatal shot. The sniper was always observant, always ready to strike but also eternally patient striking only when the time was right.

---

"Thanks for walking me back home." Annie said.

"Not a problem." Forge said as Annie smiled faintly as she went into her apartment.

Forge left the area. When he gave Annie the gentle pat on the back he left a small biodegradable bug on her jacket. That meant he could hear things going on in Annie's apartment through his blue tooth.

Annie walked in to find Alex and Ray watching the news.

"Man. Things are really going to hell in the Middle East." Ray remarked.

There was a video of Israeli riot police quelling a mob of Palestinians with clubs and shields. With a loud bang something exploded and gun shots started to echo. A van sped away from the scene.

"Violence has intensified throughout the Gaza Strip as Palestinian mobs engaged Israeli riot police near several border checkpoints. Sources say that Palestinian refugees fleeing from the Heartless in Gaza have been turned back at gunpoint by Israeli forces along the border." the CNN newscaster said.

"That's not the half of it. The Iranians and Pakistanis are going to war too." Alex remarked.

"In other news today the Pakistani garrison at Qila Safed has attacked an Iranian border station. The attack appears to be retaliation for the Iranian destruction of two Pakistani flagged tankers in the area of Bandar Abbas." the CNN caster continued, "The UN is attempting to broker a cease fire between Pakistan and Iran but neither country desires to talk of a truce. Pakistan's president has decreed that Iranian's actions have been inexcusable and must be met with force. Tens of thousands on both sides of the border have been displaced fleeing from air strikes, ground battles and the rumored use by Iranian forces of mustard gas."

"Chemical attacks?" Annie sighed, "The world's being FedEx'd to hell all over this Heartless terror."

"But they're not talking about the Heartless on the news right now." Ray said.

"But that's why the Iranians have been attacking merchant ships for the last few weeks." Annie said, "They've been claiming that ships full of Heartless have been coming towards their shores."

As he walked back to his own lodgings Forge could hear everything going on inside that apartment. The bug would biodegrade after 24 hours into nothing more than a fleck of dust.

---

**Gaza:** Imhotep fired a single round from his Mauser 86SP sniper rifle and the Palestinian with the RPG fell backward with a smoking hole in the center of his forehead. A trio of Palestinians with the RPG were trying to use the riot that the YAMAS team was quelling as cover.

CRACK! The shot to his left told Imhotep that his spotter Avi was engaging with the M16A3 rifle. Another Palestinian with an AK hit the ground.

At the same time five men emerged from the riot wearing Israeli Police ballcaps. Imhotep knew that it was Samad's team that just snatched the instigator. Roa yanked the Mini-Uzi from under his jacket as Samad put the instigator in a controlling hold. Samad shoved the prisoner into a vehicle and the other YAMAS operatives piled into the unmarked civilian van which drove away from the scene.

Avi and Imhotep kept their scopes covering the arresting team's egress route. Lately the Palestinians had tried using RPG teams to attack YAMAS undercover teams when they would egress from a mission. To counter this the YAMAS units kept snipers as stay behind units to pick off RPG teams.

"The package is wrapped." came the voice of Shlomo into the headsets of the two YAMAS snipers.

Imhotep slung his Mauser rifle and pulled his IMI Jericho sidearm from it's holster on his right thigh. Avi took point and the two men left the building they had been using as a hide site hours before the riot.

Downstairs waited a squad of MAGAV soldiers around three Israeli Sufa jeeps. The two YAMAS snipers raced into the vehicle and the MAGAV troops mounted and drove away from the riot.

As Imhotep and several of his fellow troops were cleaning their weapons Shlomo walked into the room and called the teams together. "Latest news."

"What's going on?" Imhotep asked.

"We're being pulled out to the Gaza perimeter. The Army is dealing with the entire affair now." Shlomo said.

The sound of artillery fire could be heard and the noise of several Israeli Defense Force attack helicopters flying overhead could be heard.

"What about support functions?" Samad asked, "And intel. After all our teams have been all over Gaza for months."

"Aziz is already dealing with them." Shlomo replied, "But until then we are on quick reaction force status. That means any Israeli forces coming under attack we respond."

---

"What's going on Arcade?" Angela asked as she walked into the Misfit house.

"I just hacked into the computer of Danielle Atron, the CEO of the Paradise Valley Chemical Plant." Arcade said.

Sorcerer was also in the computer room. "I've got gigabytes of data coming in. A lot of files on this GC-161 compound."

"Most of it's pretty old stuff from the '90s and everything." Arcade said.

"Thanks guys. Way to make me feel old." Angela replied.

"Wasn't you and Sergeant Draper's first date in the '90s?" Arcade oh so innocently asked. Angela jokingly ruffled the young hacker's hair with one hand.

Arcade didn't mind Angela Bennett at all. She was different from all the other soldiers and assorted government types that called the Pit home. First of all she was a computer expert so he clicked with her and with Sorcerer almost immediately.

And she was one of those 'cool' adults here at the Pit. That earned her even more props in Arcade's book.

"Hey I've got something else too. It looks like a shortcut into Danielle Atron's private database. It's firewalled though and it's defeating all my attempts to hack into it." Arcade said.

Angela said, "Let me take a look at it. Here. Try this..."

"Wow." Arcade said. Angela had instant access to the contents.

"I've found some disturbing stuff. Something about compromised operatives and a facility in Bratislava?" Angela said, "I'm burning this to DVD and getting this to Lady Jaye."

"Good call." Arcade said, "Sorcerer and I will see what else we can find out."

Angela walked off to her car and headed for the Tactical Operations Center, as she headed into the building she nearly ran into a very harried looking Carl Draper.

"Carl what's going on?" Angela asked.

Inside the TOC was Paige Halliwell. The Charmed One looked worried as she wrung her hands and paced through the room.

"Lowlight, Mountaineer this is Motel Six." Dial Tone said, "Report."

The sounds of gunshots being traded could be heard.

"Damn it they're jamming our communications." Dial Tone shouted.

"Ted's alive. I don't know about Low Light..." Paige began.

"How do you know that?" Lady Jaye, the Battle NCO or the sergeant in charge of the Tactical Operations Center, replied.

"I have that emphatic bond with Ted, it's like a Whitelighter's bond with her charges." Paige replied.

"There's your answer." Draper replied, "Lady Jaye, I'm diverting the Predator over to investigate."

"Scorpion 25," came a radio call from the Predator controller, "This is Stinger 16. I've got armed hostiles and five vics closing on our team's position...request permission to engage."

"Standby." Draper replied and shouted over to Lady Jaye.

"Engage." Lady Jaye replied.

"Stinger 16, engage..." Draper replied.

Angela could see the video feed from a Predator UAV. Two men were running from several more armed men. At least forty of them were on their tails. There were also five black vans with armed men jumping from them.

"I still can't get comms." Dial Tone said.

"Let me take a look at it." Angela replied as she headed over to a computer and started to check.

"Oh no..." Angela groaned.

"What?" Lady Jaye said.

"It's a classic worm(1). That attack on the Pit that happened last week." Angela replied, "It was just a diversion. They must have gotten information on our communications system and that's why they're jamming the teams."

"This doesn't sound like something COBRA would be capable of. They don't exactly have the best computer experts working for them." Lady Jaye replied.

"They don't. But the Praetorians do." Angela replied.

"Can you defeat it?" Lady Jaye said.

Angela looked at the lines of code on the screen, "I can. But it might take me a while."

"Work fast because a while is what Low Light and Mountaineer don't have." Lady Jaye replied.

"No need to tell me twice." Angela replied as she became heated.

"Stinger 16 engaging targets." Draper shouted, "BDA two vehicles destroyed three fleeing the scene. Permission to send Stinger 16 to pursue?"

"Negative. Keep that Predator engaging the team's pursuers." Lady Jaye replied.

"I'm reading a truck with more gunmen headed toward's the teams position." Stinger 16's voice came, "We've got seven dismounts headed their way. They're firing on the team..."

"Engage hostiles." Draper ordered over his radio.

---

Lowlight lay napping for a couple hours of sleep. Ted was on watch on the spotting scope, his SAM-R set on its bipod. They had trailed a suspicious individual with a World War II era bolt action rifle earlier on their insertion.

Ted kicked Lowlight awake. "Sarge. Check this out..." the Canadian-Israeli began.

Lowlight grabbed his 7.62mm Mk.11 Sniper Rifle. He silently moved his safety from safe to fire and noticed Ted's safety was at the same status.

Below was a sight straight out of a World War II movie. "Please tell me there's a movie being shot in Paradise Valley about the Nazis on the Italian Peninsula..." Ted groaned.

"Call it in." Low Light said.

Ted reached over for the handset for the radiotelephone. "Motel Six this is Bullet 20. I'm reading a force of guys moving in from the west. Black uniforms...holy shit."

"Ted what is it?" Low Light asked.

"Low Light tell me I'm hallucinating. I see Waffen SS troopers." Ted replied.

"I'm afraid you're not hallucinating." Low Light said.

"I hope that's just a bunch of World War II re-enactors." Ted replied.

"Doesn't look like it..." Low Light said. He saw a man standing on the porch of an old house at the edge of a clearing. He shook as the SS troops fired submachine gun rounds into him.

"Motel Six, this is Bullet 20. I've got what looks like Nazi stormtroops massacring civilians..." Ted replied, "Engaging."

"Knock it off!" Low Light said.

"Damn you we can't let them just massacre civilians like that!" Ted replied as more gunfire ripped into the area.

Ted opened fire. His rifle bucked and a Nazi smashed against a tree as a bullet ripped into his skull.

"Cease fire!" Low Light said.

Another Nazi fell with a bullet in his skull.

"Mountaineer!"

"That wasn't me this time!" Ted replied.

"Where'd that shot come from?" Low Light asked.

"I don't know!" Ted replied.

"They're headed this way." Low Light replied and cracked off another shot, knocking another Nazi to the ground.

Ted reached up for his own radio

"I've got five vics headed this way." Ted replied as he pointed towards the road. There were several black vans with several Paradise Valley Chemical Plant personnel armed with H&K G36 battle rifles and full combat loads heading their way.

"Recommend we beat feet." Ted replied.

"Smart idea." Low Light said, "Lay down suppressive fire and I'll get to that far ridge. I'll signal you on the team radio."

"Our radios don't work." Ted replied.

"Our radios to base don't work. But our personal walkie talkies do." Low Light replied as he took off running.

Ted picked his targets carefully as he began to engage the Paradise Valley Chemical Plant Security Forces closing on them.

It was then that he heard the Predator drone overhead and saw two Hellfire missiles streak towards the black vans. Two of the enemy vehicles exploded in a massive fireball. He fought down the urge to give a loud war whoop as several of the armed men took cover.

Low Light began to return fire and shot another Paradise Valley trooper down with a bullet through the neck as Ted took off running. Bullets streaked by uncomfortably close even with Low Light picking off gunmen as he saw them.

A Nazi from below was taking aim at Ted when another gunshot sounded. The Nazi fell to the ground as a bullet ripped into his skull.

A Paradise Valley trooper took aim with a shoulder fired missile. The projectile streaked into the Predator drone which began to waggle its wings and it crashed into the ground with a big explosion.

As Ted and Low Light fled into an arroyo the sight of several of the Misfits teleporting in could be seen.

"Boy are we glad to see you guys." Ted remarked as he cracked off several rounds at their pursuers.

"Stand back. I'm gonna rock their worlds..." Lance said as he caused a massive wave of earth to rise and smash several of the pursuers.

A Nazi got over the rocks and fired his submachine gun at Blob. Blob turned and said, "Hey that tickles before charging the Nazi who was frantically trying to change magazines, lifting him into the air and then body slamming him onto the ground.

"Woo hoo! Woo hoo! Woo hoo!!!" Pietro said as he ran around among the various Nazi and Paradise Valley troops and yanked several massive wedgies.

The Nazis and Paradise Valley Chemical Plant Security forces beat a hasty retreat as the Misfits advanced on the house.

"No question about it. This wasn't an ordinary criminal hit." Roadblock said as he surveyed the carnage inside the house.

"Who were these guys?" Lance frowned, "Spooks or something?"

"They do seem to be spooks by the appearances looks." Roadblock said.

"They're not ACME or anything. We'd have known about it if it was the case." Ted replied as he glanced around, "Bingo."

"What?" Blob asked.

"The uniform pattern on the dead radio operator and the destroyed radio set. I recognize it but it doesn't add up. It's a World War II radio set, used by Allied forces and the uniform is consistent with a Royal Air Force signal NCO." Ted replied as he took his left hand off the foregrip of his SAM-R.

"Nazi soldiers and guys with World War II equipment? Huh." Shipwreck said as he picked through the wreckage.

"Wait a tiff, Ted," Althea began, as she walked over another corpse, "Don't the Halliwell's have a sister that's on another world where World War II is still being fought?"

"Yes. Prue's out there fighting the Heartless on another world." Ted replied, "I'll have to ask Paige if Prue knows anything about any of the Nazis from her world making their way into ours."

"Do it." Althea said.

"Right." Ted replied before he tapped his Mass Device communicator. Nothing happened.

"They've got a jamming device here." Althea frowned.

"But it doesn't jam the Whitelighter express." Paige said as she orbed in.

"Where did you come from? How did you know..." Althea asked.

"Emphatic bond." Ted replied with a smile: "It's like the link Whitelighter's have with their charges but a bit more intimate."

"So in other words you guys are almost as clingy as Scott and Jean." Althea observed.

"No. Unlike the X-men leader or his controlling girlfriend BDSM is not part of our lifestyle." Ted replied.

"Good one." Althea smirked.

"Ugh, what happened here? Who are these guys?" Paige asked, "Clearly not a bunch of World War II re-enactors."

"They were the remains of an OSS team."a voice began, but not one of the Misfits.

A man walked into view. He was wearing a pair of civilian trousers and a green World War II era collared shirt. The symbol on the left sleeve of the shirt was a blue diamond, the symbol of the Ranger battalions of the Second World War. In his hands was a telescopic sighted 1903 Springfield.

"Who are you?" Althea demanded.

"Anthony Hiram. These dead men were my teammates. We were on a mission. Trailing the Krauts to this world." Hiram replied, "One of their snipers killed one of our team and seems to have trailed us here."

The sound of a jet making a landing could be heard and the Blackbird landed in the clearing nearby. "Someone else seems to have trailed us here too." Althea said as the X-men made their way towards them.

---

"So let me get this straight." Scott began, before pointing at Hiram, "You're from an alternate dimension where World War II is being fought against an alliance of the Axis Powers and the Heartless."

"Yep." Hiram replied.

"And you're part of a squad from that world's Office of Strategic Services chasing a group of Nazis here." Scott said.

"Yeah. But the Krauts hit us hard." Hiram replied.

"Hey. Vill you vatch vith the Kraut line. I find it offensive." Kurt replied.

"Sorry." Hiram replied, "We've been at war with the Jerries for a long time."

"Hey." Kurt said.

"Guys. I recognize the world Hiram's from." Paige remarked.

X-men and Misfits alike stared at the Charmed One as she spoke, "My sister Prue lives on that world. She's been dealing with that particular alliance."

"Fighting against it I mean." Paige added at Hiram's raised eyebrow.

"OK. Now that it's settled who these people are and who's getting involved in this we should get out of here." Low Light said.

As they left the area two yellowish eyes watched them. Sabertooth spoke into his communicator as the Blackbird flew away: "X-men and Misfits are in town and Pyro saw one of their human friends, Forge hanging out at the Chemical Plant."

"Do they know you're here?" Magneto said from the other side of the communicator.

"No." Sabertooth said, "At least not me. Pyro might be another story..."

---

"Things are at a boiling point, exactly as you predicted in the Middle East." Destro said.

"Perfect cooperation between you and the Praetorians." Syndrome replied.

"The death toll in the Iranian-Pakistani border conflict is believed to be at least ten thousand. The Pakistani government accused Iranian forces of using mustard gas on several villages near the border. In retaliation, Pakistani forces have fired VX gas into Iranian positions along the border." The CNN report began before cutting to a speech from the Pakistani Prime Minister.

"Tehran's actions in the past weeks have been inexcusable. They accuse us of using the Heartless to attack their cities and attack our ships and kill our mariners. Well no longer. This morning Pakistani forces along the border launched an offensive into Iranian territory. We will not be pushed by our peer nations. They fire chemical weapons at our villages in hopes we will cower before them. They have only added to our resolve..." The Pakistani Prime Minister said.

"I must admit it was ingenious to imprint those computer files into the Iranian government's data bases and tip off Pakistani agents." Cobra Commander said.

"Forgery and deception are among the many things Praetorians are skilled at." Trelawney replied.

"And both you and Cobra Commander's efforts in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have been quite useful. And I must admit that it was brilliant to start kidnaping mutants in the Territories in the middle of all the Israeli and Palestinian fighting." Syndrome replied, "Mindbender must be having a field day."

"That he is." Cobra Commander said, "Our secret labs in Lebanon and Syria are producing more types of Heartless."

"You might want to be careful. Possible Israeli raids could occur on your facilities." Trelawney warned.

"Pfah. The Israelis are too busy fighting with the Palestinians to notice any of our laboratory projects." Cobra Commander replied, "Both the Shin Bet and the Mossad's key efforts are oriented at the Palestinian terror networks in Israel and abroad."

"Bear in mind that the Mossad and Shin Bet are two of the most formidable intelligence agencies on the planet. They have already arrested one of our operatives and killed two of them." Trelawney replied.

"Now who's incompetent!" Cobra Commander said triumphantly as he stood up and jabbed a finger at Trelawney.

"First off the two deceased operatives were killed when they found themselves in the middle of a gunfight between the Israeli Army and the Palestinians in Gaza." Trelawney replied, "And the one arrest happened in Samaria when he happened to be supporting some of your operations. YAMAS didn't realize who they'd detained at first and now he's being interrogated by the Shin Bet."

"OK. What does that operative know? Do you have inside agents in Israel?" Syndrome asked.

"Unfortunately no." Trelawney said, "And not for lack of trying. Within a year of their insertion the Shin Bet always manages to dig them out and either kill or capture them."

"So much for the Praetorians having eyes and ears everywhere." Cobra Commander smirked, "The Shin Bet makes for a formidable adversary, doesn't it."

"Well at least our idea of a formidable adversary is one of the most efficient and skillful internal security services on the planet. COBRA on the other hand keeps getting kicked in the balls by a bunch of mutant teenagers." Trelawney replied.

"Knock off the arguing. Both of you. I agree the Shin Bet and Mossad have been a thorn in our sides." Syndrome said.

"More than a thorn." Duncan Matthews said, "I've got nothing to trace them on it, but I think they might have killed six of my guys in Bayville."

"I think that goes beyond Bayville, Mr. Matthews." Graydon Creed said, "All over the world FOH members have been killed. Quite a few by gunshots, but mostly by bombs."

"Well you do have your share of enemies on the human side. After all the Purity League has split off from your factions, thinking the FOH isn't radical enough." Trelawney added.

"And you know this how?" Creed asked.

"The Praetorians have a fairly good hacking network among other things. And the blogs of a few of your junior members, including the six blown up in Bayville. Not exactly a big secret." Trelawney replied.

"All that intelligence and 'talent' and you still can't kill one woman that was able to bring you down in the late nineties?" Cobra Commander replied snarkily.

Creed laughed at Cobra Commander's remark before Syndrome said, "Let's get back to the matter at hand."

"And lets not forget mutant problems too." Senator Kelly said, "A number of our contacts have been found killed by bone spikes or similar mutant phenomenon. The Morlocks have a protector in the form of that former X-man Evan Daniels."

"What of Senator Shale's speech in Orlando? Do you require help?" Trelanwey replied.

"Our operatives are in place. None have been compromised. The Orlando Police Department has very little clue of what we're doing nor any federal agency has any real." Creed said.

"I'd say the fact that there has been a G.I Joe contingent training the Orlando Police Department's SWAT Team would say that someone knows about your operation. There's a leak." Trelawney said.

"Pfah! It's a simple security precaution. I'm committing my best operatives and the anti-Mutant power generators COBRA generously provided to the operation." Creed replied.

"Bear in mind they're only prototypes. Barely tested." Mindbender cautioned.

"Alright. Now let's not forget about the GC-161 project. I believe Paradise Valley Chemical Plant has some in stocks." Syndrome said, "I believe there is gonna be no shortage of interested parties regarding that chemical...or the kid from that accident in the '90s."

"Dr. Mindbender would have a field day using the chemical to create more powerful Heartless and Nobodies." Cobra Commander replied.

"Let's not forget that the Xavier Institute has an operative in place." Trelawney added.

"And there have been sightings of two of Magneto's henchmen in the area." Syndrome replied.

"I sense a conflict brewing in the area. I think it prudent to wait it out and then steal samples of the GC-161 ourselves..." Trelawney replied.

"Agreed." Syndrome said, "Let the Acolytes and X-men duke it out and swipe the GC-161 from right under their noses. Perfect."

---

TBC

1. See Chapter Five of Praetorians.


	4. Trouble in Paradise Valley

Trouble in Paradise (Valley)

Disclaimer: Same as before. For those following this saga I apologize in advance if I've been a little late updating. RL has had me awful busy and another case of writer's block hit hard.

* * *

"This is insane." Arcade grumbled as he sat with Angela and Sorcerer as they continued their computer hacking in the Pit's communication center.

"How's the hacking going?" Lady Jaye said as she walked in, "Not enough information?"

"More like too much information." Angela replied she said as she sipped at a cup of coffee.

Just then Carl Draper walked into the office. "I'm here to refill the codes for our radios."

His eyes scanned the communications office. He could see Angela Bennett, Arcade, and Sorcerer working at some computers. There were empty Hot Pocket boxes, coffee cups, various caffeine drink cans and all sorts of telltale signs of longterm hacking lying around the room.

"Yikes." Draper remarked, "I was gonna ask long night but I think I answered my own question."

Angela stood up and headed towards him. "Brilliant deduction, Holmes." Angela joked, "How's Kumar doing since Vanessa's gone on maternity leave?"

"He's got bags under his eyes from making runs for Vanessa's cravings a lot of nights. Interspersed with morning sickness." Draper replied.

"Kumar or Vanessa?" Angela asked.

"Vanessa." Draper replied with a smile "But other than that, Kumar's been alright. Tired. But alright."

"Nice to hear everyone's getting along." Angela replied with a smile, "How about you?"

"I've been better." Draper replied, "Randall's had me on the late shift and on callout for the past few days."

"Sometimes I feel like I'm a babysitter." Angela said and rolled her eyes.

"No way dude " Sorcerer remarked, "That's wild? You actually hacked into the Xavier Institute not once but twice. I read that on your file."

"You not only managed to gain access to a very advanced one user only computer with a unique interface I might add, but you were able to reprogram it to have you as its primary user and were able to defeat several attempts of the X-men to defeat you? Whoa Major hacking..." Sorcerer continued.

"Yeah. To them Cerebro was just a machine..." Arcade said with a strange look on his face, "but she was so much more than that."

"Oh-kay..." Sorcerer said with a raised eyebrow and a_ 'Please quit flirting with Draper and HELP ME '_ expression on his face.

Angela shot him a glance that said_ 'Sorry buddy you walked into this on your own'_.

"She was the best thing that ever happened to me and the X-men killed her. They say she wasn't alive. That she didn't have feelings. But she was alive I tell you..." Arcade began.

"You're right." Draper said.

"He had a 'Cerebro was killed by the X-men' rant or two last night. But he was OK after he took his medication." Angela replied.

"When we got formed and assigned to G.I. Joe we were told to expect unusual characters but I never expected anything like this." Draper mused.

"You and me both." Angela replied with a wry grin as she stifled a yawn.

"Shouldn't you guys get some rest?" Draper asked.

"You don't know hackers very well do you." Angela said.

"Well I dated one so I should know." Draper replied.

"Then you should know when we find something and we've got a lead we can't be dissuaded." Angela replied.

"Well said." Draper replied.

"Holy crap " Arcade said.

Angela and Draper both rushed over to the screen. "What? What's wrong?"

"Oh dear God." Angela said as she stared at the screen and headed for the tiny bathroom.

The three of them stared at the image of a man being tortured to death. Blood was everywhere. The sounds of screams could be heard. There was more of the man outside of him than inside. Intestinal tracts and other viscera were visible.

"What the hell? What sort of monster would do something like this?" Draper asked.

"I dug up some files called on some organization called Elite Hunting. Danielle Atron appeared to have had multiple contacts with them." Arcade said.

"I'll get the information to Lady Jaye." Angela said as she came out of the bathroom.

As she walked out of the office, she noticed Carl Draper following her. "Hey, are you alright?"

"I'm fine. I just got sickened by all that suffering and the idea that someone could take pleasure in inflicting it." Angela replied.

"Hey. Thanks to that video byte we've got a chance to stop this Elite Hunting organization." Draper replied.

"I hope so." Angela replied.

* * *

Kyle Brody read the Paradise Valley Police Department report. Something just didn't add up. Something that didn't sound like a gang dispute over a crystal meth lab that culminated into a shootout.

He sat in the rental sedan as he drove out to the crime scene. The PVPD officer with a blonde flattop and a muscular frame accompanying him said, "I don't know what you expect to find, the reports pretty much established that the house was a crystal meth lab and a known gang of a local Aryan extremist group wanted their cut. They killed the meth lab guys over the dispute. End of story."

Brody parked the car and paid no attention to the young police officer who continued his explaining. He swept the crime scene. The chalk outlines of the victims were still there. As were the dried spots of blood.

"I don't know what you expect to find Agent Brody." the cop said, "CSI has already been through here."

Brody pointed a flashlight into a small depression in the floorboard. Three 9mm casings were in the area. He picked one up and noticed the tiny Nazi swastika on the base of the casing.

"Hmm. These look like 1940s era casings." Brody said as he bagged the casings and put them into his pocket, "I'll take these to the local Homeland Security lab..."

The cop stood straighter and tensed behind him. He wasn't really a cop. In fact he was Vince Carter an employee of one Danielle Atron. And she was most concerned about a certain Department of Homeland Security agent that was poking around Paradise Valley. And it seemed he was getting close.

Vince went for his issued Glock and the silencer hidden in his pocket when Haunter appeared before both of them.

Haunter promptly grabbed each end of his mouth and then made a grotesque stretching of his face: "Blaugh..."

"AAAGGHHH!" both Agent Brody and Vince screamed. Haunter promptly licked both of their faces and they both lay twitching on the ground.

"Haunt. Haunt. Haunt. Haunt. Haunt. Haunt. Haunt." Haunter laughed.

The orbs of a Whitelighter could be seen and Brumby appeared. He put a hand on the twitching Brody's shoulder and orbed them outside.

"Better make yourself scarce." Brumby said.

"Haunter Haunter." Haunter said.

"Keep an eye on that Paradise Valley Police Department officer." Brumby said.

"Haunt. Haunt. Haunter..." Haunter said and crossed it's hands.

"I don't know...keep him entertained somehow." Brumby replied, "I've got someone else's memory to mess with."

"Haunter." Haunter said as he smiled and banged one fist into an open palm and then headed inside.

It was just then that Brumby realized that he just gave Haunter free license for something and that meant one more memory he was going to need to fix. He rolled his eyes just as Brody came too.

"Ugh...what happened?" Brody said.

"Car trouble." Brumby said and pointed at the popped car hood: "You tried to fix the car battery and you got shocked. Good thing I turned up when I did..."

"Thanks. And you are Mr...?" Brody asked.

"Brumby." the Whitelighter replied.

"That's so strange. I remember this weird black ghost head with disembodied hands..." Brody said.

"Oh he's nothing to worry about." Brumby said and blew a hand full of strange powder into Brody's face.

"You found mysterious casings yes. But there was no PVPD officer with you. You came alone and you had car problems. When you touched the battery you were electrocuted and passed out." Brumby replied before vanishing.

"Now to find Haunter. I wonder what he's gotten up to...Likely no good." Brumby groaned.

* * *

"Ringler. As compelling as your evidence sounds there seems to be little proof that the North Koreans are massing for an assault across the DMZ." Major Harold Johns, the intelligence officer for the 1st Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, said as the two men sat in the HQ dining facility.

"Sir. Evidence is pointing to the fact that the North Koreans are up to something. Ever since the Heartless surfaced the nation of North Korea has gone into a further isolationist stance. Satellite imagery shows less and less foot traffic on the roads, 'volunteer laborers', and the Lightfoot Report..." Ringler replied.

"Lionel. Look. I'm telling you this not just as your superior officer but as your friend. Your stock with not only your battalion but with quite a few in division and brigade is going down. This doomsday scenario you keep envisioning isn't going to occur."Johns said., "And frankly listening to the words of a CIA Special Activities Division officer whose stock isn't so high either isn't a good idea."

"Sir, I served with Bryce Lightfoot for years when we were with 1st Infantry Division." Ringler replied, "I trust the source of the information."

"Even if Lightfoot's right there isn't any evidence stating that North Korea is colluding with COBRA and in fact being rearmed by it for an assault southward." Johns replied.

"Even further evidence. Two North Korean minisubs have been encountered washed ashore. One at Inchon and the other in Seoul harbor. These would be ideal for inserting covert assault elements into South Korea." Ringler replied.

"The one at Inchon had clearly been abandoned for a long time. Several months at least. And there was that team of five North Korean spies rolled up by the South Korean police around that time in Inchon. It was a fairly quick open and shut case. As you know spies from the North are about as predictable as seasons." Johns replied.

"The occupants of the Seoul minisub were never found." Ringler replied.

"True. But the vessel had been abandoned for some time. The forensic team believed that the minisubmarine discovered in Seoul had suffered a catastrophic failure and merely washed ashore." Johns said.

"Well sir, where the hell are the bodies, then?" Ringler asked.

"Nothing corrodes like sea water." Johns replied.

The news broadcast of the nearby TV sounded just then: "In other news today unknown assassins killed the mayor of Inchon, Tan Min Guk, with a single rifle shot."

* * *

Cho Seui-Ho crept along through the woods. The house of the mayor of Inchon was located in a wooded estate outside of town and through careful observation his sniper team. He set the SVD rifle on the log.

He knew Tan Min Guk liked to jog along the path near sunset with two bodyguards. Three shots. That was all he needed. Three shots and the Great Leader Kim Jong Il would have his victory.

His crosshairs focused clearly on the junction of the path as footsteps sounded. The fifty year old man had no sooner jogged into view when Cho squeezed the trigger. CRACK The Dragunov sounded as it bucked in his hands. The single round cracked through the air and tore into Mayor Tan's throat. Even before he could hit the ground, gasping, choking and spitting blood the skull of one body guard split apart from the assassin's second shot.

The other body guard had maybe enough time to withdraw his sidearm before the assassin's third bullet ripped into his chest.

Two of his comrades waited by the estate's high fence. Having secured a way in they had eliminated two other perimeter guards and guard dogs with silenced weapons. It was perfectly executed.

* * *

The next day Forge was at work in the lab when he saw Lars Fredrickson heading towards him. The Austrian chemist never looked like he was in a good mood. Right behind him was a dark haired fellow in jeans and a leather bomber jacket.

"Ah, Herr Forge," Lars said, "This is Agent Kyle Brody, Department of Homeland Security. He vould like to speak to you regarding his recent investigation."

As the two men spoke to Forge Annie headed over to them saying, "Dr. Fredrickson, the last documentation regarding GC-161 you requested. Unfortunately the data being several years old means its somewhat corrupted."

Hopefully he won't spot the fact that I'm responsible for the so called corruption of the data. Hopefully the links to Alex won't be discovered. Annie thought.

"May I use your conference room, Doctor?" Brody asked.

"Of course." Fredrickson said, "I'll let everyone know. Ms. Mack I'm going to need to speak with you in private."

Annie replied pleasantly, "Of course Doctor."

Inwardly she felt the nervousness. How much did Fredrickson know? What exactly was he keeping from her.

* * *

Meanwhile Forge sat in the conference room across from Agent Brody.

"I've got a few questions for you Mr. Silvercloud, or do you ,prefer Forge?" Brody replied.

"Forge."

"Well, first off your employment here at Paradise Valley Chemical Plant right before the time of several killings seems to be an interesting coincidence." Brody replied, "And you have had a prior history of residence with the Xavier Institute."

"So am I a suspect?" Forge asked.

"Well. First off that's a very elementary assumption and some might think you had something to do with the killings. But no. You're not a suspect. But what with your background with the Xavier Institute and the fact that a lot of recent violence targeting mutants has been going around of late I would identify you as a person of interest in this case." Brody replied.

"Alright. First off I have no idea what you're talking about." Forge replied.

"What would you know about this?" Brody said as he handed Forge the empty bullet casing.

"Uhm history's not really my area of expertise." Forge said, "But it looks like a German WWII era bullet casing."

"And on that same site an eyewitness reports having seen members of the US Army mutant team called the Misfits in the area. From what I know the X-men have had quite a few dealings with them." Brody said.

"Yes. But they're hardly bosom buddies." Forge said.

"Well I know that your two sides seem to work with each other on occasion and lately as result of some mysterious foe known as the Heartless." Brody said.

"We've had our share of run-ins with the Heartless, yes but I'm not sure where the Nazi bullet casing ties in." Forge replied.

"I've seen some evidence that there may have been Heartless around where a mysterious killing took place of several unknown people." Brody replied.

"Wait." Forge said, "I think I might have seen some mysterious guys in black carrying what looked like 1940s era machine guns."

"When was this?" Brody said.

"It was last night some time." Forge said.

"And was there anyone else who can confirm this sighting?" Brody asked.

"My co-worker, Annie Mack, might have seen something." Forge replied.

"Thank you, Forge. Here's my card. I'll be in touch." Agent Brody said as he walked out of the room, "I'll see if I can't find Miss Mack."

* * *

That was not to be however. When Annie went into Dr. Fredrickson's office the scientist close the door behind him and closed all the curtains. Annie turned around just in time to see Dr. Fredrickson's face shimmer from an older Austrian scientist to that of a blue skinned woman with long red hair and glowing yellow eyes.

"Wh-wh-what..." Annie said, stammering.

"Well. Ms. Mack. There appears to be a discrepancy with the report you gave me. I corroborated the reports of the GC-161 data you gave me and it seems you were labeled as a person of interest in the case. Something in the file on you didn't quite check out though." Mystique began.

Annie screamed and Mystique laughed. "Dr. Fredrickson was quite an influential man at this plant before I liquidated him and took his place. I took the liberty of having soundproofing installed in this office in case something like this should manifest itself. Needless to say that excellent display of cardiovascular and vocal prowess was heard by no one other than you and me..."

Mystique seized Annie and Annie struggled. It really was no contest. Mystique was clearly stronger and she clamped a cloth soaked with a sweet smelling liquid over Annie's mouth and nose.

_Chloroform. _Annie thought as she felt the world narrow before everything went black.

Mystique took a cell phone from her pocket and dialed a number: "Sabertooth. There's a Department of Homeland Security agent who's been getting quite close to our friend Forge. See to it that both of them don't survive..."

* * *

Emily Kinnian (1) walked into the Pit's Intelligence Center. "Here's some more information we've gathered on Syndrome's bio-engineering experiments."

"Thanks." Lady Jaye asked before saying, "Are you feeling alright?"

"I'm fine." Emily replied.

Staff Sergeant Carl Draper was checking some aerial reconnaissance photos that had been taken near South America. He started to walk to the door when Emily's eyes suddenly rolled into her head. He caught the ACME intelligence analyst before she hit the ground.

Lady Jaye grabbed the telephone and began to call Lifeline. "I'll get her to the Infirmary." Draper began.

"I'll help." Angela Bennett said as she stood up from a nearby computer, "My car's parked next to the entrance."

"Get her feet." Draper said, arms under Emily's arms.

Angela complied and the two headed downstairs to Angela's car. They drove Emily to the Infirmary.

Ten minutes after they arrived they were joined by a very concerned looking Alan Fielder. The ACME clandestine services operative had been on a training mission when he'd heard of Emily's fainting.

"What happened?" Fielder asked.

"She just fainted." Draper replied.

"Is she alright? Will she be alright?" Fielder said.

"Lifeline should be out any minute. It probably is exhaustion related." Draper replied, "And speak of the devil."

Lifeline came walking in. "What happened to Emily?" Fielder asked.

"I'm afraid that's confidential." Lifeline replied.

"It's alright." Emily said as she sniffled, walking out of the examination room.

"Well. As I've already told you, Emily, you're pregnant." Lifeline said.

"Remind me to take some of my vacation days near the due date." Draper replied, before Angela elbowed him sharply in the ribs, "OW "

"Carl " Angela said.

"Sorry." Draper replied.

"What's he going on about?" Emily asked.

"The last baby we had born on this base." Draper replied. (2.)

Emily's brow furrowed, "You were there for a birth?"

"Let's just say I wound up an impromptu midwife at said birth." Draper replied.

"And he did a good job of it to." Angela replied, not resisting to opportunity to give Draper grief over it.

"I heard a lot of the Search and Rescue guys gave you the nickname of Mr. Midwife." Lifeline added.

"Yes. I know. I work with those clowns on a daily basis." Draper replied.

"Even Master Chief Randall gets into the act." Lifeline said.

"And you know this how?" Emily asked, curiousity piqued.

"Senior Airman Patel has told more than a few stories." Lifeline replied.

"I'll definitely have to have a talk with Kumar about that." Draper replied.

"That chat will have to wait, Mr. Midwife." Master Chief Randall said as he walked into the room with Captain Travis the detachment OIC and a stocky bald man with the uniform of a US Army Warrant Officer.

"Staff Sergeant Draper, meet Chief Warrant Officer Mike Cressan, 10th Special Forces Group Randall said, "He's the XO of Operational Detachment Alpha 1085 in Europe."

Draper shook the Warrant Officer's hand and said, "What can I do for you, sir."

"Officially we need a combat controller for training the Slovak Army in airfield seizure operations. But we know you have had first hand experience with a terrorist organization called the Praetorians." Cressan said.

"Understood sir, but Agent Bennett, FBI Cyber Crimes, has had extensive experience dealing with them." Draper replied.

"I know. I've read all about Agent Bennett's story. Quite amazing actually." Cressan said.

"Thank you." Angela said.

"Having been stripped of your identity and then relying only on email and chat encounters with a kid you barely knew and the occasional contact with sympathetic figure until you were able to re-establish yourself. That's impressive." Cressan replied.

"Sir, might I ask why I'm being re-assigned?" Draper asked.

"You helped Agent Bennett face the Praetorians when she was a civilian. And your CSAR unit has had prior contact with the Praetorians. We could use a subject matter expert." Cressan replied.

"When do we leave?" Draper asked.

"Right away." Randall said, "I've already got all your paperwork squared away for a temporary assignment with the 10th Special Forces Group."

"I'll go get packed and draw my gear." Draper said and headed out of the office.

Angela caught up with him. "Hey. Be careful out there. OK?" Angela said.

Draper smiled back at her, "Will do." Draper replied before he gently kissed her lips and said, "I love you."

"If you're working with what I think you're working with be careful. This Elite Hunting group that Arcade and I have uncovered with Sorcerer is ruthless." Angela replied.

"It's not like I'm going through this alone. Those 10th Group guys are pretty squared away. I'd worked with them before." Draper replied.

"Still..." Angela replied.

"I'll be careful Earth Angel." Draper said with a smile.

"I'll help you pack." Angela said with a smile as the two of them headed to the parking lot and towards Draper's car to head for his house.

As they walked towards Draper's car the bluish orbs of a Whitelighter orbing into the Pit could be glimpsed.

"What's going on Brumby?" Angela asked.

"Look I've got a bit of a problem here." Brumby said.

"Let me guess. Three mischievious ghosts are on the loose here on the Pit? Right?" Angela asked.

"Ehrm not quite. One of them's off in Paradise Valley taking care of an errand. I'll go round him up later. But it seems that Gastly and Gengar are on the loose." Brumby replied.

"PUT ME DOWN PUT ME DOWN PUT ME DOWN " Sorcerer shouted as he floated in mid air.

"Gaastly..."

"Gengar..."

"NO NOT ON THE CACTI NOT ON THE CACTI! AIEE! OUCH " Sorcerer said as Gastly and Gengar

Sorcerer jumped into the air grabbing his rear end with both hands.

"Gengar Gastly Get back over here now " Brumby said as he chased them with his modified cell phone.

"Brumby I'm gonna brain you " Sorcerer said as he chased Brumby on his skateboard swinging a fire ax.

"Easy Yeow " Brumby said as he dodged a blow.

"Your ghost Pokemon have gone too far " Sorcerer shouted.

"Sorcerer you're not helping things by chasing Brumby around." Angela said.

"I wonder what Haunter got up to this time?" Draper replied.

"Who knows." Angela replied.

"Probably nothing good." Draper commented: "Pheww that was close. I don't think Sorcerer's gonna be able to get that axe out of the wall."

"Too bad the wall happened to be General Hawk's office's outer wall." Angela commented.

"At least he's on that inspection tour and..." Draper began before wincing, "Ow that looks like it hurt. Sorcerer had to have been going pretty quick on that downhill when he plowed into General Hawk."

"I think we'd better make ourselves scarce least we get involved with any more wildness here on the Pit." Draper replied.

"No arguments here." Angela replied, "But you know here on the Pit insanity and wildness go hand in hand."

"OW! OW! OW!" Duke shouted as he ran away being chased by several flying robotic crows pecking him.

"Trinity's at it again. This time inventing A.I. driven robotic creatures programmed for mayhem." Angela said, "I knew teaching software engineering to Trinity was a bad idea..."

* * *

"Ow...Ow...Ow...Ow...Ow!" Vince shouted as Madame Onatopp, the best known dominatrix in Paradise Valley, was spanking his diaper clad butt with a wooden spoon.

"Haunt. Haunt. Haunt. Haunt. Haunt. Haunt. Haunt." Haunter laughed. He was invisible to both the dominatrix and Vince.

The Madame was a tall elegant woman with blonde hair that was presently curled up in a severe bun. She wore a skin tight black PVC dress, fishnet stockings, and skyscraper heels.

"Haunt. Haunt. Haunt. Haunt. Haunt." Haunter laughed.

"Stop For the love of God Stop " Vince shouted.

"Your note to me specified no safe word." Madame Onatopp said, "So you've got the full two hours. Relax there's still an hour and forty-five minutes more of pleasure in it for you. Long enough to use the electric clamps and the Fluggengenheimler toy from the Netherlands..."

Outside the window Brumby orbed into view. "Nice Haunter. Very nice."

"Haunter Haunter." Haunter laughed.

"You've probably got the most warped sense of humor of any creature I've ever run across." Brumby grumbled.

"Let's get out of here and..." Brumby said as another Whitelighter orbed in near him.

Elder Gideon orbed over with a very irate expression on his face.

"Elder Gideon? What are you doing here? And why do you smell like smoke and the end result of a stink bomb?" Brumby asked.

"Funny you should ask. I would have to say two creatures named Gastly and Gengar..." Gideon said.

"What? I just rounded them up from the Pit five minutes ago " Brumby protested and checked the specially modified cell phone the three Pokemon resided in. The indicator showed that Gastly and Gengar were definitely not in the phone.

"Then you've got a lot of explaining to d-OUCH " Elder Gideon shouted as Gastly threw a metal garbage can on top of his head and then Gengar started banging on it with a section of metal pipe.

"Gengar Gengar Gengar "

"Alright you three you've had enough fun for the day. Who else are you going to harass? The Xavier Institute."

"Haunter Haunter " Haunter said and promptly vanished with Gastly and Gengar.

"Oh bugger." Brumby groaned.

* * *

Sabertooth lay hiding near the road atop a hill. He saw the car driven by the Department of Homeland Security agent driving along the road. He shoved the massive boulder into the road.

Meanwhile Agent Kyle Brody slammed the brakes and the car slammed against the massive stone and deployed the airbag. His seat had also slid forward and pinned him against the steering wheel.

He glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw the mutant terrorist known as Sabertooth headed right for him. He reached for his gun but because of how the seat had broken free of its mounting the gun was pinned against his hip and he couldn't get to it.

He was well and totally screwed and he knew it. It was around then that he was tackled by another mutant - this one known as Wolverine.

"You're really starting to bug the hell out of me Wolverine." Sabertooth growled as he wrestled with Wolverine on the ground.

Wolverine gave Sabertooth an adamantium backed punch to the face. Sabertooth shook it off and shoved Wolverine off of him.

"Can't a man kill a Department of Homeland Security flunky in peace?" Sabertooth growled.

"Not in this day and age Funny Coat " Wolverine said as his claws came out. He swung a slash at Sabertooth which cut into the muscled forearm of the larger mutant.

Sabertooth bull rushed Wolverine and picked him up before body slamming him onto the hood of Agent Brody's car.

* * *

Brody raised his left arm to shield his face as the glass crackled with Wolverine's body slamming onto the front of the vehicle. Sabertooth picked up a large rock and prepared to slam it down onto Wolverine when a blast struck him from the side and slammed him against a tree.

Cyclops came running from a nearby drainage ditch with Kurt following him.

Sabertooth made another charge towards the vehicle only to get punched by an adamantium backed fist by Wolverine. Cyclops blasted him with another optic burst that sent him crashing into a large rock.

Realizing he was outnumbered Sabertooth ran off shouting, "This isn't over..."

"I'll be waiting for you bub." Wolverine declared.

"Worry about the fight between you two later. We've gotta help this guy." Kurt said and teleported into the inside of the car. He grabbed a hold of Brody's arm and teleported him back onto the road.

"Thank you Nightcrawler." Brody said.

"Vat? How do you know my name?" Kurt asked.

"I know a lot about you." Agent Brody replied, "Your real name is Kurt Wagner."

"Alright bub..." Wolverine said, "Spill it. Who are you with?"

"Agent Kyle Brody, I'm with the Department of Homeland Security." Brody replied.

"So what do you want with us?" Wolverine said.

"I'm in the middle of an investigation around here and I believe that your man Forge is involved in some way. I'd like to talk to him..." Brody replied.

"Not without us present you won't." Wolverine replied.

"Fine. I'm gonna have to track down one of the witnesses in this case. Miss Annie Mack. Unfortunately I've not seen her since I last talked to her." Brody said.

* * *

The black Land Rover Defender with tinted windows drove towards a complex of abandoned warehouses on the outskirts of town. Annie Mack's eyes opened slowly as if they had tiny lead weights embedded inside them.

It was around then she realized two things. One was that rope secured her wrists palm to palm behind her back and that there was a wad of cloth stuffed in her mouth held inside by a tightly stretched strip of black silk over her lips that was knotted twice behind her head.

The SUV pulled inside a compound and into the open door of a warehouse. The blue skinned woman opened the warehouse door and then drove inside before parking the SUV and closing the door behind her. She then opened the door and took Annie's seatbelt off and roughly grabbed a hold of her arm and dragged her out of the vehicle.

"Mmph " Annie protested and let out a muffled, "Get ur 'nds off me Get ur 'nds off me Help Help "

"Quit squirming kid. It's not gonna do you any good." Mystique said before forcing Annie to a wooden chair.

"Have a seat." Mystique commanded. The command proved to be a moot point as Mystique forced Annie into a seated position and then tied her to the chair.

"Mmph Mmph " Annie mewled a protest or two behind her gag.

"What can you tell me about the GC-161 accident?" Mystique said.

Annie glared at Mystique as the latter said, "Oh how careless of me. You can't really say anything with that dreadful gag can you?"

Mystique removed Annie's gag and said, "So what can you tell me about the GC-161 accident?"

"I don't know anything. You got the wrong gal." Annie said.

"Oh that's where you're wrong. I have it on good faith and plenty of suspicion that you have some knowledge of what went on during that accident." Mystique replied.

"Even if I did what makes you think I'd tell you anything." Annie replied.

"Perhaps this would change your mind " Mystique replied as she transformed into a large repto-humanoid monster with spikes coming down the back and a long muzzle with spiked teeth.

"You won't kill me. Even if I knew anything about GC-161 or that accident I'm much more useful to you alive." Annie replied.

"Good point. But if you don't want to wind up a paraplegic with a scarred and mutilated face..." Mystique said and held a claw menacingly close to Annie's face to illustrate her point.

"So I ask again." Mystique replied, "What can you tell me about GC-161?"

"It's a chemical compound intended as a weight loss drug to be marketed by the Paradise Valley Chemical Plant. Due to an accident and some other problems it was canceled..." Annie said.

"Spare me the campy sales pitch Miss Mack..." Mystique said.

"The chemical properties of GC-161 make it a clear to translucent liquid in its normal form depending on ambient air temperature. It should be stored at between sixty to seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit indoors." Annie replied.

"Useful but not quite what I'm looking for. Continue..." Mystique said.

"The substance is said to be teratogenic..." Annie began.

"Meaning it creates monsters. Miss Mack you just may have saved your own life." Mystique said before turning back to normal and gagging Annie again before placing a call to Magneto.

* * *

"Well there's the last of my things." Draper said as he lifted a heavy military type rucksack onto his back and adjusted the straps, "Here's my spare house key."

"I'll take good care of your stuff. Maybe even replace that prehistoric laptop of yours." Angela joked.

"Oh no you don't That thing's got sentimental value." Draper replied as he adjusted the Army patterned camouflage cap atop his head. He wore an Army uniform to blend him in with the Army Special Forces team he was working with.

"It's over eight years old." Angela replied, "I swear you're probably the most sentimental person I've ever met."

"I thought you liked that about me." Draper replied.

"I love that part of you." Angela replied as she kissed him lightly on the lips, "Don't ever change that. Even if it does give me something to tease you about."

"Mew..." Meowzie (3) said as she approached Angela and Carl.

"When you want attention..." Carl said.

"She's spoiled rotten isn't she?" Angela replied.

"You think you can keep an eye on her too?" Carl said.

"Of course." Angela replied and picked up the Meowth, "Hi sweetie."

"Careful she's not too nice with strangers..." Carl warned, "She scratched up Shipwreck pretty badly the other day."

"Carl. That was Shipwreck we're talking about. She seems to like me." Angela replied as the Meowth licked her face and sniffed at the underside of her chin.

"Well I'll be." Draper replied.

"I think we ladies will be fine." Angela said with a smile as she cradled the animal in her arms.

He looked into her eyes and could see both worry and love in them. Leave it to fate to be funny that way. Things with Angela were going well. Their relationship was getting restarted again and now he had to go and do something downrange.

He kissed her again this time a slightly longer and deeper kiss. One that spoke of promises of things to come. One that he would remember for however long this assignment would last.

It was around then that Pietro came running over to them. "Hey Angie...as much as I hate to interrupt you and Drape's sweet goodbye we need you over at Paradise Valley for a communication's intercept."

As much as Pietro could be irritating Angela decided not to fire back a comment at him. And besides he was a kid. A crazy messed up kid. But a kid nonetheless.

"All aboard the Misfit Express." Pietro said.

"I need my laptop." Angela said.

"Way ahead of you Stopped by the communication center and grabbed your computer." Pietro said and held up a small notebook computer.

"Lead the way." Angela said.

"I'll see you when I get back." Carl replied as he headed for a waiting vehicle to take him to the airfield.

Pietro grabbed a hold of Angela's arm and tapped his teleportation watch and teleported straight to Paradise Valley...

* * *

"So it seems that Mystique has a hold of the child contaminated by the GC-161." Vexen commented.

"She intends to let Magneto know about it as soon as possible." Demyx confirmed.

"And of course Syndrome and the Praetorians are going to want a piece of the action." Saix remarked.

"And of course COBRA. Incompetents they may be their Mindbender is quite intelligent and he is especially eager to get his hands on the GC-161." Roxas remarked, "Shall we appropriate it."

"Mindbender may be brilliant but he is nowhere near on our level. And besides why do unnecessary work. Let us permit Mindbender to do some experiments first and then we can  
reverse engineer his results." Vexen said, "Let us see what Syndrome's coalition of villains can accomplish."

"Are you sure it was wise to put faith in Syndrome's machinations?" Larxene said.

"He does show potential even if he's a bit short sighted. Even though his desire for revenge against Robert Parr serves as a hindrance." Vexen said.

"Still I don't quite have much faith in Syndrome." Larxene said, "Perhaps Trelawney might be a far more capable leader of this coalition of villains."

"Leave Syndrome where he is." Xenmas said as he walked into the room, "But watch Trelawney. He is clever and manipulative and I sense his ambition and likelihood to betray Syndrome and possibly attempt to betray us."

"Rest assured should he attempt to do so he will be destroyed. He would make a perfect Dusk." Larxene said.

"Larxene. I shall deal with Syndrome and Trelawney on my own time...Meanwhile let us see how this little drama shall play out." Xenmas said.

"What of the Keyblade wielder?" Roxas said.

"Lance Alvers has yet to receive the Keyblade. And he has his doubts as to his worthiness to wield the weapon." Demyx said.

"Perfect to turn and recruit him to our cause and our vision." Roxas said.

"In time young Roxas. In time." Xenmas said.

* * *

TBC

1. See the fic Facility Kronos for Emily Kinnian and Alan Fielder's first appearances.

2. See the fic Praetorians Chapter Five

3. See Chapter Three of Praetorians.


	5. Of Kidnappings and Keyblades

**Of Kidnappings and Keyblades**

**Disclaimer: Same as before.**

**Author's Note: Many thanks to Red Witch for creating the Misfitverse and for inspiring this particular plot twist in my story.**

**Author's Note: I figured I'm gonna introduce Selene into my storyline. Her exact role will be seen in future fics...**

* * *

Angela Bennett felt herself materialize into an encampment outside of town near where the Blackbird had touched down.

"Hey guys! I got her! I got her!" Pietro said.

"We heard you the first time Speedy." Ted remarked.

"What's going on?" Angela asked.

"We need you to do an on site hack. Because we fear there might be an attack." Roadblock remarked.

"We already hacked into Danielle Atron's personal database at the Pit. And you don't want to know what that woman gets off on if you catch my drift..." Angela remarked still feeling the slight rush of bile at the back of her throat just thinking of it.

"It's not Atron that we're worried about." Scott interjected, "Forge mentioned he made contact with a promising lead - an intern at Paradise Valley Chemical Plant named Annie Mack. Unfortunately she seems to have disappeared."

"OK. Why do you need me?" Angela asked.

"We think whoever kidnapped Annie might make contact with her sister, Alex. Do you think you can localize where the call originated?" Shipwreck began.

"I'll see what I can do." Angela said as she fired up her laptop and began to scan the communication traffic addressed to one Alex Mack.

"I'd recommend getting in touch with Forge. Find out where he is. Whoever kidnapped Annie might target him next." Ted remarked.

"Already taken care of." Lance said, "We told Xi to follow Forge discretely."

"This is one insane town." Angela remarked, "I've just intercepted an ad for a dominatrix named Madame Onatopp...and is that one of the Paradise Valley Chemical Planet employees in a collar and a diaper?"

"Wow Summers looks like this dame could put Jean to shame." Lance remarked laughing before Jean telekinetically threw him into a thorn bush.

"Why does this look disturbingly familiar..." Scott said and then turned pale, "Oh no..."

"Haunter Haunter!" Haunter said as he appeared amongst the X-men and Misfits.

Brumby orbed into their midst. "There you are!"

"I take it Piper had a heart to heart with you just now?" Paige remarked as Brumby looked slightly singed.

"Sort of. Gastly and Gengar were wreaking havoc at the Pit. And then Haunter was running around San Francisco causing a few issues around San Francisco. I believe they nearly gave Inspector Morris a nervous breakdown by tying a certain Ms. March to the top of a flagpole with several bedsheets and a long line of her undergarments." Brumby replied.

"I coralled Gastly and Gengar and then got a lead on Haunter. Then Piper had her 'heart to heart' with me..." Brumby replied.

"Why does it not surprise me that everywhere you go something goes...OW!" Scott shouted as Haunter gave him a monster wedgie.

"Listen. Try to corral three ghosts with mischief streaks larger the Pietro's ego! That's a bloody full time job and...Wanker!" Brumby said as he orbed somewhere else.

"Alvers! Get a handle on your Whitelighter and his three...OWWW!" Scott shouted as Haunter zapped him with a taser and then disappeared to cause havoc elsewhere.

"Hey I've got something." Angela replied.

Everyone crowded near Angela and her laptop. On the screen they could see Mystique and in the background was Annie Mack, tied to a chair and gagged for good measure.

"Miss Mack. You don't know me so allow me to introduce myself. My name is Mystique and I have a business proposition for you. It's a one for one swap. As you can see I have your sister in my posession. A charming and brilliant young woman though she is it isn't her that I want. It's you. I know all about your exposure to GC-161 and that it's given you some rather unique powers. Here's the deal...at midnight tonight I want you to meet me in the warehouse district. Come alone. It's a simple exchange. You for your sister's freedom..."

In the background Annie struggled vainly against her bonds and made a few inarticulate noises behind her gag.

"Suffice to say that if you contact the police or any law enforcement agencies you're going to instantly become an only child." Mystique said, "So to reiterate - warehouse district at midnight. Come alone. And no police presence. Do this and your sister goes free..."

Mystique hung up as Roadblock said, "Did you get a trace?"

"I've got a one hundred square meter area where that call could've orignated." Angela said.

"That's a start." Low Light said, "Mountaineer and I should be able to sneak over there to observe from a safe distance and Quicksilver can do a close in recon."

"Sounds like a plan." Shipwreck said, "But someone's gotta talk to the kid. Make sure she doesn't turn herself in to Mystique. Do you think you can do it Angela?"

"Why me?" Angela said.

"You could definitely be someone to put her at ease." Shipwreck remarked.

"Wouldn't there be other candidates for this?" Angela remarked.

"Easy. You're approachable, unthreatening and not someone Sabertooth or any of Magneto's agents know anything about." Shipwreck said.

"I never thought I'd see the day where I'd hear Shipwreck come up with a good idea." Scott quipped.

"Hell has officially frozen over." Lance remarked.

"Lance and Scott agree on something? Color me shocked." Althea remarked.

"On another note Angela you're also the most sane person among this group." Cover Girl remarked.

"I'll go find Alex and go talk to her and see if I can't pinpoint Annie's location." Angela replied.

* * *

"Vince, I don't care how you get back to the office just get back here...now!" Danielle Atron shouted into the telephone.

"Look there are some circumstances behind all this." Vince replied as he called from a payphone near the side of the road. He was still wearing the diaper and the black leather collar and had various marks all over his body directly as a result of Madame Onatopp's session.

"I don't care. I need you here at the plant this instant!" Danielle said.

With a sigh Vince stood by the side of the road with the classic hitch-hiker's thumb. As he did so a large red Dodge pickup truck with a few rednecks inside stopped nearby.

"Need a lift sonny." One of the rednecks said with a very gap toothed grin with a missing tooth or two.

"Oh Great...this is right out of Deliverance..." Vince groaned.

* * *

Meanwhile Danielle Atron had no idea that she was under observation. From the car parked in the rest area on the highway the man had a clear line of sight towards Atron's office window. It was at least fifteen hundred meters. A long shot to be sure but one well within his capabilities.

He knew that the glass window of Atron's office was ordinary glass. And even if it weren't the Chey-Tac .408 caliber round was strong enough to puncture bullet proof glass. And the near half inch diameter bullet would be especially lethal when it hit Atron.

Vengeance would be his. At that Bratislava facility where she paid to torture three members of an ACME surveillance team captured by the Elite Hunting Organization when the team was following Atron and her activities. Two of the three were people close to the man and all three were colleagues.

Atron would die and he would ensure it. For the three dead ACME operatives. For justice long denied them. _Vae Victus. Suffering to the Conquered. _The man thought as he carried out his covert surveillance of the target to commit Atron's routines to memory before he would strike her down like the vermin she was.

The man knew he could make the shots to kill Atron easily but not right now. Not when there was too much activity outside. But justice would descend swiftly and decisively. Just not right now.

* * *

Alex Mack felt her face fall. Whoever this Mystique lady was she certainly was resourceful and knew a lot more about her than she realized. She sat in an isolated corner of the Barnes and Noble she was supposed to have met Annie at after she finished work.

She played the message back on her iPhone as she listened to it with her headphones. The blue skinned woman had Annie trussed up and gagged in the background and she could hear her sister's muffled struggles in the background as Annie writhed against the ropes.

Alex took her headphones out and stuffed her phone into her small purse as she headed out to the parking lot for Annie's car. It was around then that she collided with a brown haired woman carrying a cup of coffee. The cup splattered coffee onto both of them.

"Oh my God I'm so sorry." Alex said.

"It's alright." the woman replied, "In a hurry?"

"Yeah. I'm so sorry about the accident." Alex said.

"It's alright." the woman replied and then introduced herself, "You must be Alex Mack."

Alex was seriously weirded out right now. She'd never seen this woman before in her life and already she knew her full name.

The other woman added, "My name's Angela Bennett. I'm with the FBI Center for Internet Crimes. I'm here to help you."

"H-how do you know?" Alex said.

"I have my ways." Angela said, "Now you're in terrible danger. I have some friends that can help you."

"Look..." Alex said resolutely but with tears in her eyes, "I don't know you but you've got all sorts of information on me. How can I know to trust you?"

Alex turned to leave as Angela added, "I can relate to what you're going through."

Alex stopped for a moment and Angela continued, "My identity was erased in the late 1990s by a cyber terrorist organization called the Praetorians. I was constantly on the run for almost a year aided only by an internet friend nicknamed Sorcerer. So you see, Alex, I can relate to feeling like no one can help me. I found it hard to trust anyone but I learned to really read people and how to trust."

Alex let out a small sob, "Look this Mystique lady says if I don't show up at midnight tonight she'll kill Annie. I can't let that happen."

"Then show up at midnight." Angela said.

Alex looked surprised but then composed herself, and then smirked weakly, "I was expecting you to talk me out of even attempting to showing up."

"Not at all. I learned about what happened to your sister and I have some friends very willing to help you out." Angela replied.

"And who are these friends of yours?" Alex asked.

"Highly qualified and very, ehrm, unique individuals..." Angela replied.

"Unique individuals?" Alex asked.

"You'll see when you meet them." Angela replied.

* * *

"So let me get this straight. You guys are part of the Xavier Institute...i.e. the guys responsible for all the mayhem in Bayville." Brody began.

"Hey! I'll have you know these people are responsible for _more _than their fair share." Jean Grey snapped.

"Ah. The Misfits. The US Army mutant team." Agent Brody said: "Hardly models of restraint yourselves."

Agent Brody then turned towards Mountaineer who was presently cleaning his SAM-R and said, "And you're one of the new recruits to G.I. Joe. Ted Griffin, a member of the Israeli Gaza Unit YAMAS."

"Got it one." Ted replied.

"I trust your Operation Decapitation wasn't much of a success in controlling Palestinian terrorism." Brody continued.

Ted bristled and Paige put a hand on his shoulder. She could feel Ted seething underneath the seemingly calm facade as he put his SAM-R back together.

"Paige Halliwell." Brody began, "One of the Halliwell sisters of San Francisco. I've got a question as to why mysterious things seem to happen when you three are about."

"Leave my fiancee out of this." Ted growled.

"Protective aren't we." Brody said.

"Like any man would be of his fiancee." Ted replied as he reassembled his rifle.

"There appear to be four red suited individuals, possibly mutants, also vigilantees by the look of them. They also appear connected to your fiancee and..."

CRACK! It was around then that the blow from Ted's fist landed at the point of his jaw. Brody recovered from the blow long enough to punch Ted in the center of the face. Ted staggered back a pace and Brody went to press the advatange only to receive a kick to the groin.

"Will you two knock it off!" Paige snapped angrily.

Just as she spoke Haunted appeared between the two combatants wielding a large frozen fish and immediately whacked both Ted and Brody upside the head.

"Haunt. Haunt. Haunt. Haunt. Haunt. Haunt. Haunt." Haunter laughed.

"Wow it looks like Brumby's new friends are equal opportunity tormentors." Althea deadpanned.

"OW! OW! OW! OW! OW! OW!" Pietro squealed a high pitched squeal.

"Gengar! Gengar! Gengar! Gengar!" Gengar laughed as he chased Pietro with a cattle prod.

"Gastly!" Gastly said as he appeared in front of Pietro and walloped him in the face with a frying pan.

"Wuh. Wuh. Wuh." Pietro said as he stumbled drunkenly and right onto a wasp's nest that Haunter placed conveniently under where Pietro was about to fall. Immediately angry wasps came out of the smashed nest and started stinging him.

"OW! OW! OW!" Pietro shouted as he immediately awoke from the repeated wasp stings to his behind.

"BRUMBY!" Lance shouted.

The Whitelighter appeared in the usual flurry of blue orbs.

"What? Oh. I see you've found Haunter, Gastly and Gengar." Brumby replied.

"Among other things. And a Department of Homeland Security Agent." Lance replied.

Brumby recognized Agent Brody and rolled his eyes. Another memory he was going to have to alter.

"Why is the Blob holding him and Mountaineer apart like that?" Brumby asked.

"Pretty Boy decided to make some snide remarks about Paige and Mountaineer clocked him." Lance replied.

"Now you two should realize that mistrust and insults aren't the best way to introduce yourselves to each other." Blob began in his Psychiatrist Fred voice.

"Blob somehow I don't think that your Psychiatrist Fred act is working." Lance remarked.

"Gee what was your first clue. Those two get along almost as well as you and Colossus do." Pietro quipped.

Roadblock was currently banging his head against a large rock: "Why? Why? Why? When we meet new people they start to fight?"

It was around then that his communicator blipped. It was a message from Angela.

* * *

"So let me get this straight." Alex replied, "After you had a call about the Praetorians appearing again you met your ex-boyfriend, who you subsequently got back together with, and the Praetorians threatened your life so you now live on an Army base. And with you are quite possibly the most insane mutant superhero team on the face of this Earth..."

"Clearly you've never met the X-men." Angela replied.

"You know about those guys in Bayville?" Alex replied.

"I've been accquainted with them." Angela replied.

"Wait. So you're saying two of the most destructive and insane mutant teams known to exist are not only here in Paradise Valley but are going to help save my sister?" Alex replied.

"Yes." Angela replied.

"One question, is Paradise Valley going to remain standing after they're done?" Alex asked.

"Given the track records of the X-men and Misfits that is a valid question, but I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say yes. The town is going to remain standing." Angela said.

Inwardly Angela was hoping that the proverbial limb wasn''t long and skinny and made out of balsa or some other especially breakable piece of wood.

"So what is your plan for when we go to rescue my sister?" Alex asked.

"Well four of the Misfits are already checking out the area where I triangulated the signal." Angela replied, "And we'll pull a fast one on Mystique. And besides don't you have powers as well?"

"H-how do you know about that?" Alex asked.

"A machine called Cerebro." A voice sounded.

"Alex, this is Forge, one of the X-men." Angela said as introduced the X-men's Inventor as he headed over to them, "Timely arrival on your part."

"Yeah. The Professor told me to come find you via a telepathic message." Forge said.

"Professor? Telepathic message? You guys are seriously starting to freak me out!" Alex replied.

"Forge, maybe being so direct about it wasn't the best solution." Angela chided him.

"It's not like she wouldn't have found out anyway." Forge replied.

"You know I'm standing right here!" Alex replied.

"Sorry about that Alex." Angela replied.

"Wait. I know you. You're the my sister's new co-worker...but if you work for the X-men? You're here as a spy? You were trying to find out about me!" Alex said.

"Look Alex. We're here because we believe you are in terrible danger." Forge said.

"I kind of guessed that when Mystique kidnapped my sister!" Alex said.

"Mystique? Uh oh. That means we've definitely got trouble and..." Forge said as Angela's Droid cellphone beeped.

Angela took her phone out and checked her e-mail.

"I think uh-oh is fast becoming the understatement of the year." Angela remarked.

"What's the uh-oh?" Alex asked.

"It seems someone's called in a hit on your parents. Someone from the Paradise Valley Chemical Plant." Angela said as she punched some more keys on her phone to get a hold of Roadblock.

"We've got to get home!" Alex said.

"OK." Angela said.

"But can we stop at Taste of Bengal Indian Cuisine?" Alex said.

"Sure. May I ask why?" Angela asked.

"Let's just say my powers have an added boost when eating curried rice." Alex replied.

* * *

"So you want GC-161? What is in for me?" Atron asked as she spoke on the video chat with Cobra Commander.

"Plenty if you play your cards right." Cobra Commander replied.

"Specifically." Atron replied.

"First off GC-161's potential is limitless. Provide me with a supply and I will allow you unlimited access to the results of my experiments." Cobra Commander replied.

"Anything else?" Atron replied.

"I believe there was an accident at your plant a long time ago. And a kid was involved. And it remained an unsolved mystery." Cobra Commander replied.

"How do you know about that?" Atron asked.

"Oh I have my ways." Cobra Commander said with a smug grin.

"I assume that it's a result of working with Sean Trelawney. I have a hard time picturing you figuring that out on your own." Atron said.

"And how do you know about Trelawney?" Cobra Commander asked.

"Let's say I have heard of him in my circles and I'm honestly not impressed. A woman and a teenager were able to destroy his organization." Atron replied.

"For years you were unable to figure out who got into that accident with your GC-161 delivery truck. But we figured it out." Cobra Commander said.

"As much as it pains me to ask for information from a third rate terrorist and pay for it with a yet to be specified quantity of GC-161 I'll ask the question: who was it?" Atron asked.

"Alexandra Mack of Paradise Valley. Another associate of mine has her beloved sister as a hostage. And I'm willing to kidnap her parents as additional hostages." Cobra Commander said.

"Who needs another hostage. Get rid of those traitors and you have a deal." Atron replied.

"Gladly..." Cobra Commander said and then signed out. Little did either Atron or Cobra Commander know they weren't the only ones out to carry a hit against the Mack family.

* * *

"Pyro you have one mission." Magneto said, "And only one mission. I want you to torch the Mack family residence. Do not allow Dr. and Mrs. George and Barbara Mack to escape."

"Right." Pyro said, "I'll let them burn and burn and burn."

"More incentive...they're raising an army of mutant pineapples." Magneto said over the comm device.

"Say no more. They shall breathe no more!" Pyro said.

As soon as Pyro signed off Magneto was certain that feeding Pyro's pineapple paranoia would ensure that the Mack family would cease to exist. At the same time he had Mastermind lying in wait with Sabertooth at the rendezvous where Alex was going to exchange herself for her sister Annie's safety. It would be there that Mastermind would alter Alex's memories to show that Annie was a member of the FOH and had been responsible for killing their parents. He calculated that Alex would angrily kill her sister (if not Sabertooth would gladly carry out the deed) and thus get rid of another person who could likely tell Xavier anything about his plans.

However Magneto's neatly laid out plan was not to come to pass...

"Oh my God!" Alex screamed as she saw the house was on fire. Nearby was a redhaired mutant in a red suit with a flamethrower on his back.

Demons made of fire were attacking the household. In front of the demons a large trench opened in the Earth and a wave of dirt crashed against them.

"Looks like help's arrived." Angela remarked. Nearby she could see Avalanche concentrating as he made the massive wave of earth to contain the fire demons.

"Burn! Burn! Burn! Pineapple raisers!" Pyro shouted.

"Oh no you don't you nut!" Avalanche replied as he concentrated as hard as he could to make the large wall of earth in front of Pyro's flame creations.

Angela ran towards the front door of the house as Alex tore the door off its hinges. The curried rice she'd consumed a few minutes ago was working its magic.

"Wavedancer! Think fast!" Angela shouted and turned on the spigot in front of the house for maximum output.

Wavedancer sent a high velocity stream of water from the spigot at the fire creatures created by Pyro.

"We've got more trouble here!" Forge commented as several Cobra La warriors were currently swarming the Mack household. Alongside them were two large spider-like creatures about the size of small cars and between them was a large humanoid about six and half feet tall, hideously over muscled, one arm ending in a hideous claw, the other normal. The symbol of the Heartless was stamped into its chest, and a mouthful of fang-like teeth filled its mouth. Antennae sprouted from its head, as its eyes glowed yellow-white.

Toad swung his bo staff into the neck of one of the Cobra La fighters and as he did he turned to see the Prototype from their Facility Kronos misadventure. (**AN: Facility Kronos fic**).

"Not that thing again!" Toad groaned.

"Toad! Worry about the Heartless _mon ami_! Gambit take care of these Cobra La warriors!" Gambit said as he threw a charged stone into one of the Cobra La Heartless blowing it apart.

"Hi YAHH!" Toad said as he lept onto one of spiders and brought it down with a savage bite as he brought it down to the ground to be eaten.

"That's an image that's gonna haunt me for a few years." Angela deadpanned as she ran into the house behind Alex.

The Prototype roared and it ran towards Angela. Angela spun around and fired her gun several times. The .40 caliber slugs slammed into the Prototype but didn't even slow it down.

An optic blast struck the Prototype and temporarily diverted it from charging into Angela and impaling her on its grotesque claw-like hand.

Angela ran inside the house as the Prototype turned to face Cyclops.

Toad jumped on the other massive Cobra-La Spider and started to bring it down with another takedown bite.

"Mmm. Bugs..." Toad said.

"Toad enjoy the all you can eat buffet later! We got that Prototype to deal with." Cyclops bellowed.

Gambit threw another charged card under a nearby Cobra La warrior and blew him up.

Alex ran inside shouting: "Mom! Dad!"

She threw a Cobra La fighter into the refrigerator. Behind the kitchen island she could see feet in high heeled shoes.

Forge ran behind the kitchen island. He saw a blonde haired woman lying on the floor there was blood on the floor.

"Oh my God! No! No! No!" Alex said. Anger filled her features and she charged outside firing static bolts at the Cobra La warriors.

"You Bastards! You bastards! Why won't you die!" Alex screamed.

She lifted up one Cobra La fighter and threw it at the Prototype.

Meanwhile Forge called over to Angela, "Mrs. Mack is still breathing."

"I'll go see if I can't find her husband. Let's get them out to the back yard where it's safer." Angela said.

"Outside is safer? You're kidding right?" Forge replied.

"Safer than this place is about to be." Angela said as she looked out the window, "Pyro's flame attacks are getting closer."

"I'm checking upstairs." Angela added as she ran upstairs.

"Where's Alex?" Forge called after her.

"One crisis at a time!" Angela called back.

Kitty phased into the house to help Forge drag Connie Mack out to safety. At around the same time Angela was taking George Mack out of the house to a safe area in the backyard.

The wall smashed in as the Prototype charged into the backyard with a roar. It swung a powerful blow at Kitty who attempted to phase through it. To her horror she realized that she couldn't phase through the attacks of the Prototype. The creature swung a blow that knocked Kitty down. She got to her feet to try and clumsily get out of the way but she wasn't even able to stand up all the way before the Prototype knocked her back down.

Lance came charging over to her rescue. As he ran towards Kitty he felt himself bathed by a strange aura and he could see the strange blade in his hand. It resembled a large skeleton key with a gleaming steel blade.

_**The Keyblade has chosen its wielder for this world and its wielder is you Lance Alvers. **_A strange voice echoed inside Lance's head as he raced over to save Kitty.

"Get away from my girl you abomination!" Lance bellowed angrily and swung the Keyblade with a swing that cleaved the Prototype's head from it's body.

"H-how did you do that?" Kitty asked.

"I-I don't know. It was as if the Keyblade knew to appear here and now." Lance replied.

Meanwhile Wavedancer, Gambit, and Cyclops were all facing off against Pyro.

"Boy do you wankers know how to ruin a good fire!" Pyro said.

"We'll ruin more than that _mon ami _if you don't leave this family alone." Gambit said.

"Why do you care Cajun?" Pyro said.

"Because we don't like hits being done on innocent people." Wavedancer replied.

"They're not innocent. They're raising mutated pineapples to take over the world! Magneto said it himself." Pyro said.

"What!" Cyclops shouted.

"Oh dear." Gambit grumbled, "Gambit recognize Pyro's delusion. He thinks that pineapples are conspiring to rule the planet..."

"Great. We're dealing with a murderer and a lunatic on a mission from Magneto." Cyclops groaned.

"Prepare to be roasted and..." Pyro began before Wavedancer doused his flamethrowers with a jet of water from the open spigot.

Pyro saw that his flamethrowers were no longer operational and retreating was his only option.

"This isn't over!" Pyro shouted as he ran off, "I'll get those pineapple growers yet!"

* * *

Meanwhile in a hidden fortress Selene Gallio watched through a pool of water that formed a portal, "The Keyblade has revealed itself and its wielder."

She zoomed in the view to see the image of the wielder and saw it was none other than Lance Alvers. He saw her helping Kitty Pryde into a seated position and checking her for injuries.

"Can it be?" Selene thought, "Is it possible?"

Her gaze flickered to the wall and an image of a Greek soldier, appearing for all intents and purposes to be an older version of Lance, was visible.

"Can it be my love reborn after many centuries?" Selene thought.

From centuries of living to include knowledge of other dimensions Selene was aware of the mysterious Keyblade. The wielder of the Keyblade was definitely in great danger because of the Heartless. But she knew she could definitely be a powerful ally to the Keyblade Wielder and he would be a powerful help for her plans...

* * *

"You seem remarkably calm for knowing the Keyblade has appeared." Larxene remarked to Syndrome.

"It is no problem." Syndrome replied.

"Considering that Lance Alvers was able to singlehandedly defeat the Prototype you created..." Larxene remarked.

"The one you assured us was the most powerful of your creations." Saix reminded.

"A minor setback. It's no different than when I designed the Omnidroid. A minor adjustment. I have an infinite supply of genetic material and expertise in my cabal of followers in the Misfitverse. Dr. Mindbender is only one of the many fine minds I have to create something even more powerful than the Prototype. He was all to happy to see my data for the Prototype and undertook the challenge to engineer something even more powerful." Syndrome replied.

"So it would appear. But let us not forget you were also defeated on your own world." Axel reminded.

"But I returned to take over it. Once I learned to use the power of the Heartless." Syndrome said, "And Lance Alvers is not invulnerable...he has weaknesses we can exploit."

Syndrome pointed at the viewing portal the Organization XIII members were using to observe the Misfitverse. It showed Lance checking Kitty over for injuries.

"Kitty Pryde may well be the key to Lance Alvers' heart..." Syndrome replied, "And definitely a perfect target."

"Quite astute of you Syndrome." Axel said, "I must also commend you on your council of villains of the Misfitverse."

"Yes. They are quite a formidable lot. And allied with my vision and brain the Misfitverse will be mine." Syndrome replied.

* * *

**To Be Continued...up next the rescue of Annie Mack.**


	6. Enter the OneFourOne

Enter The One Four One

Disclaimer: I own nothing relating to X-men Evolution, G.I. Joe, Kingdom Hearts, nor any other recognizable franchise in this story.

* * *

Ted's eyes alternated from his rifle scope to the large 20x spotting scope he'd set up in a recessed stand of cover on a large hill overlooking the warehouse. Beside it was a digital camera recording activity around the site.

"No signs of anyone other than Mystique." he whispered towards Lowlight.

"That's odd." Lowlight remarked before speaking silently into his radio microphone, "Xi, Quicksilver, any sign of any of Mystique's pals or anything?"

"Nothing on my end." Xi said.

"Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nada. Zippo." Pietro said as he ran like a hurricane around the complex: "WHOA!"

Immediately Pietro found himself dodging a torrent of gunfire coming out of a strand of scrub brush. He saw several people in black fatigues and the patches of the Paradise Valley Chemical Plant Security logo on their uniforms.

"I can't get a shot." Ted replied as he scanned through the sights of his SAM-R.

"Need some help here! Yikes! Bullets! Bullets! Bullets!" Pietro screamed as he dodged bullets.

Meanwhile Xi crept about the other side of the warehouse and felt the presence long before he saw the being.

"One?" Xi gasped with surprise.

The serpentine mutant was almost an exact clone of Xi but with black hair that had been cut into a single top knot. A wicked looking sword was at his side.

"So it is true." One of Xi's brothers, known as One hissed, "You are a thrall of the humans."

"Brother? How did you survive..." Xi had asked.

"No thanks to the humans." One had replied: "And I am called Solitaire now."

"I do not wish to fight you." Xi replied as he noticed that Solitaire's hands had that slight twitch he knew precluded an attack.

"But you have become a pet or a tame curiosity of the humans. I have no choice but to fight you...brother." Solitaire said as he practically spat the last word out like venom.

"AUGH! STRANGE CREATURE! STRANGE CREATURE! HELP HELP HELP HELP HELP!" Pietro screamed like a little girl as he ran. Chasing him was a feline creature about fifteen feet long and three feet tall with dark and tan striped fur and black spines on its back. A mouthful of wicked looking teeth and four beady black eyes completed the picture.

"So much for being subtle..." Ted replied as he flicked the safety off his SAM-R.

"Quit jabbering and start shooting." Lowlight replied as he began picking off the Paradise Valley strike team.

* * *

Meanwhile Angela was watching the live video feed from her laptop. "They're compromised." she said.

"What was your first clue?" Wanda said semi-sarcastically, "My brother screaming like a little girl?"

"AIEEEE!" Pietro's screams could be heard from the video feed.

"Is that a Nexu?" Angela said.

"A what now?" Shipwreck said.

"How do you know about something that looks like it came straight out of Star Wars?" Althea asked.

"Actually, it did come out of Star Wars. It's a carnivore that is native to the planet Cholganna." Angela replied, as the Misfits and X-men all stared at her.

"Carl is a big Star Wars fanatic." Angela explained.

"Who? Oh Staff Sergeant Draper, one of the Combat Controllers." Shipwreck replied, "The high strung Jewish guy everyone nicknames Drape?"

"The one she has history with." Blob said.

"What history?" Shipwreck asked.

"Uhm Angela's identity was erased by this cyber terrorist group called the Praetorians and replaced with that of a criminal named Liz Marx, and then she met Draper on the run. They had a fling and she had to flee the Praetorians and Draper got investigated but cleared. He narrowly avoided being thrown out of the Air Force and..." Blob said.

"Will both of you knock it off about Angela's love life. We've got to help those guys." Althea said.

"My sister's life is in danger and you guys are arguing over your co-worker's romantic life!" Alex snapped.

Althea put a hand on Alex's shoulder to try and calm her down and said, "Welcome to dealing with the Misfits and the X-men. If it's not romantic tensions it's playing pranks. If it's not playing pranks it's dangerously explosive or destructive experiments like the Macarena Dancing Exploding Frankenstein disaster!"

"What?" Alex asked despite herself.

"It was the Bayville Monster Mash and leave it at that." Althea said.

"Guys...let's get going." Lance said.

"All aboard the Misfit Express!" Althea said and tapped her Mass Device watch.

* * *

The Misfits and X-men and the Joes all arrived at the cluster of abandoned warehouses outside of town to the scene of a rapidly growing battle. From a building overlooking the warehouses Mountaineer and Lowlight were using their sniper rifles to keep attacking Heartless and Nobodies and troops in black uniforms bearing the Paradise Valley Chemical Plant insignia at bay. Xi was fighting against what appeared to be a clone of his. And Pietro was predictably running away screaming from a Nexu.

"AUGH!" Pietro screamed as a Nexu chased him around the place where Annie was being held prisoner.

Wanda said, "No one's harassing my idiot brother but me!" She used her hex powers to throw the Nexu away from Pietro.

Blob clobbered the Nexu with a punch as it flew past him, "Especially considering that he owes me for stealing my candy stash!"

"Blob will you forget your food for one second!" Lance shouted as he created a tremor to knock over Solitaire.

Solitaire toppled slightly but regained his footing, "By the stars!"

"Solitaire my friends are here. You can join us. You don't need to fight us." Xi pleaded.

"You are thralls of the humans. You have betrayed us brother! This is not over!" Solitaire said before he cloaked himself and ran.

Gunfire blared and it wasn't just the Joes trying to help Lowlight and Mountaineer or the Paradise Valley troopers trying to kill them. The Paradise Valley troopers were ambushed by two ten foot tall creatures with six mantis like claws and three eyes and fang filled teeth.

"Oh great! Acklays!" Angela remarked.

The Paradise Valley troopers turned their weapons on the attacking acklays. Both creatures swung clawed limbs that speared and cleaved anything in thier paths. A Paradise Valley trooper turned to run only to be speared through the back and tossed into the gaping maw of the acklay.

Angela yanked Alex out of the way of a gaping claw as they ducked inside the warehouse where Annie was being held. "Mutants trying to kill me but with other mutant teams fighting them. Creatures that consume people's hearts and monsters straight out of Star Wars movies! My life is anything but normal." Alex shouted as the acklay's claw slammed into the ground inches away from where she and Angela had been hiding.

"What was your first clue?" Angela asked as she snapped a couple shots from her Glock at a Neoshadow Heartless that came running at them as they got inside the building.

"I don't know, it was either the blue lady that kidnapped Annie or the ten foot tall green monsters that look like toothy lobsters! Take your pick!" Alex snapped before turning her head and seeing her sister tied to a chair and gagged for good measure.

Alex headed over to where Annie sat bound and gagged in her chair. As Alex got closer Annie squirmed and made several inarticulate noises behind her gag.

"Mmph! Mmfh! Mmmph!" Annie said.

Alex froze. She had a feeling that she was being watched. And from the shadows Mystique sprung and kicked Alex, knocking the young woman flat on her face.

Angela turned and aimed her Glock, but realized that if she did shoot and miss, she could easily injure Annie or Alex. That hesitation was all Mystique needed to kick Angela in the diaphragm, knocking the FBI computer expert on her back.

Angela hit the ground, seeing stars and Mystique brought up her foot, preparing to stomp on the helpless programmer's head when her attacker was struck by a static bolt. Mystique staggered back a pace.

"You stupid bitch!" Alex said, angrily, "You kidnapped my sister!"

She struck Mystique with a second static bolt, the blue skinned shape shifter staggered again and Alex approached angrily, blasting Mystique with a third bolt. Mystique recovered enough to transform herself into a raven that flew off and dodged a fourth and very powerful static bolt from Alex.

Alex went over to help Angela to her feet as Annie wriggled in her bonds and made some more noises behind her gag, "Mmph! Mmm! Mmph!"

Alex understood that Annie very likely was saying, "Could you untie me right now?"

Alex hurried over and began to untie Annie's hands. As Alex went to work on Annie's other bonds Annie removed her gag and removed the rag stuffed in her mouth that had been there for several hours. Alex gave her sister a sip of water.

"I appreciate the rescue, but who on Earth was that blue lady?" Annie asked.

"A very nasty lady named Mystique." Angela said, "She's a mutant shapeshifter."

"And is she responsible for those creatures that look like they're straight out of Star Wars outside?" Annie replied as she saw the foot of one of the acklays through an open window.

"Forget look like they're straight out of Star Wars they _are _straight out of Star Wars." Angela replied.

"And you know this how?" Annie asked Angela.

"Don't ask." Angela replied. _Carl Draper it looks like your near obsession with Star Wars has come in handy. _Angela thought to herself.

CRASH! The acklay's head smashed through an upstairs window and its jaws narrowly missed hitting Annie.

Alex zapped it with a static bolt. It barely registered with the acklay which let out a feral screeching roar and turned towards Alex.

The snapping jaws clamped around Alex's jacket and Alex desperately struggled and wriggled out of the jacket, narrowly avoiding being dragged to out to her death.

Angela helped Alex to her feet and led both Annie and Alex out a back way only to be confronted by a growling Nexu that was preparing to pounce on the trio. The snapping Acklay that had just about torn its way into the warehouse made backing up not an option. Angela raised her pistol to fire it. She figured she could at least try and injure the thing, after all she knew it was lightly constructed, but she knew inwardly she could probably hit it with a round before it managed to finish her off and...

"Hey Ugly! Pick on someone your own size! HYAH!" Blob shouted and grabbed the Nexu by the tail and dragged it before spinning it over his head like a rag doll, albeit one bristling with claws, spines, and sharp teeth, and lobbing it at Sabertooth who was duking it out with Wolverine.

Angela took the opportunity to lead Alex and Annie out the back entrance and said, "Thanks for the save Blob."

"No problem. Ouch that looks like it hurt." Blob said as Sabertooth flung the Nexu into the side of the building, killing it.

Jean was currently telepathically throwing a couple of Paradise Valley thugs into the nearest stand of bushes as one of the acklay's approached from behind her.

"Jean! Watch out!" Scott shouted and blasted the acklay with a powerful optic burst into the abdomen.

The creature staggered backward but let out its screeching roar and swung a claw that narrowly avoided spearing Jean. Scott blasted it in the belly a second time and the giant creature hit the ground with a smoking hole in its chest.

Shortly afterward both Sabertooth and Solitaire heard commands in their comm links.

"This isn't over Wolverine!" Sabertooth said and retreated along with Solitaire.

A short time later the X-men, Misfits, and Joes consolidated. As they did so Angela glanced at her smart phone and her brow furrowed, "This isn't good."

"What? What isn't good?" Xi asked.

"Danielle Atron...she's dead." Angela replied.

"Dead? How?" Annie asked.

"Dead, basically not alive. As in heartbeat is zero..." Pietro remarked.

Wanda smacked him in the back of the head, "Quit being a jerk Pietro."

"Now to answer the sixty-four dollar question, she was shot." Angela remarked.

"Now the other sixty-four dollar question is who killed her and why?" Paige asked.

"In this day and age a corpse could have a dozen authors pretty easily." Ted replied, "Who are her enemies?"

"Who weren't here enemies?" Angela quipped.

"Find a motive and we find the suspect." Ted replied.

* * *

Sergeant Gary "Roach" Sanderson, a member of the United Kingdom's Special Air Service attached to the joint special operations unit known as Task Force 141, watched from his hide site. He had been studying Danielle Atron's habits for several days. He wasn't alone. From a nearby hide site his fellow SAS trooper, Lieutenant Simon 'Ghost' Riley, was also carrying out his surveillance. From a third hide site Captain John 'Soap' MacTavish would give the order for the hit. When the time came he would give the order and two Chey-Tac Intervention sniper rifles would fire simultaneously. Both Ghost and Roach would fire their rounds with the goal being to shatter the pane of glass of Atron's office window and simultaneously hitting her with the second round.

_Poetic justice. _Roach thought.

Behind the black balaclava with the white skull print Ghost grimly adjusted his aim with the Chey-Tac Intervention sniper rifle. Ghost keyed the mike of his radio once, indicating he would fire first and Roach would fire the second round, the killing shot at Atron.

"Aiming just below the neck." Ghost said quietly, barely above a whisper.

_Not often that a mission and personal business coincide._Roach thought briefly as he adjusted his own aim to the exact spot Ghost was aiming.

"Aye, aiming below her neck." Roach replied.

Soap's voice echoed over both headsets. "Fire on my mark. Three...two...one!"

Both rifles spoke as one. Thanks to the suppressors the sound could barely be heard inside the two hide sites.

The pane of glass at the window shattered from Ghost's shot and through his scope Roach watched the look of shock on Danielle Atron's face as the glass shattered and almost an instant later the .408 caliber round from his rifle struck her just below the collarbone, and ripped into her ribcage, damn near obliterating her heart. He saw the look of surprise disappear from Atron's face as her life rapidly ended and her body pitched backward.

_Justice. _Roach thought grimly as he worked the bolt of the Chey-Tac rifle and stuck the fired cartridge casing into his pocket before taking the rifle and sticking it in the case, and quietly leaving the hide site.

* * *

**Washington, D.C.: **"Clayton," General Whithalf said, "I do have some bad news."

The two men were at a function in Washington, D.C., part of a conference they were attending on the latest on the Mutant Issue.

"What would that be, sir?" Hawk asked.

"Not what. Who." Whithalf said, "Are you familiar with Lieutenant General Shepherd?"

"Vaguely. I do know he's the one who started Task Force 141. Something with Joint Special Operations Command." Hawk said.

"Precisely. They've done quite a few good things on the counterterrorism front." Whithalf said.

"And the fact that Shepherd seems to not mind General Eddington gives me pause as well." Hawk replied sagely.

"Oh the other hand Shepherd has done quite a few great things against some of these terrorist groups out there." Whithalf replied, "Some say he's even helping go after the FoH, but no one's confirming it."

"Slick. Playing both sides of the coin." Hawk remarked.

"My thoughts exactly, Clay." Whithalf remarked, "Not trying to totally alienate the Eddington side of the house but he's not totally unfriendly towards our side."

"I still wonder why we would want to have Shepherd poking around." Hawk replied.

"Shepherd is a pretty ruthless opponent. Keep friends close and enemies closer. Besides Task Force 141 could potentially be a help with this whole Heartless issue." Whithalf said, "And if nothing else Shepherd does have that connection with Eddington that could be compromised."

"Keep your friends close and enemies closer? Since when were you a follower of the ways of the Cosa Nostra." Hawk said.

"I happen to be a big fan of learning, no matter from which source." Whithalf remarked.

"I still think you've seen the Godfather one too many times, sir." Hawk replied.

"Well, yes, but there are lessons worth keeping in mind from that bit of cinema." Whithalf replied.

"I know what you mean, sir, but honestly I don't like it. Having those TF 141 guys around the Pit would be a bit of a turf war." Hawk replied.

"Not quite. It's only three teams." Whithalf replied, "I'd advise getting your political face on, Clay."

Heading towards them were Generals Shepherd and Eddington. "Sir," Eddington said to Whithalf, "I'd like you to meet General Hershel von Shepherd, commander of Task Force 141. Lieutenant General Shepherd, this is General Whithalf and Lieutenant General Hawk."

"The leader of G.I. Joe. Your reputation precedes you." Shepherd said, "I am quite familiar with your pet project of reforming members of the Brotherhood of Mutants as members of the US Army."

"And quite successfully." Whithalf said.

"I'm not disputing your success, even with your rather, eh, unorthodox methods." Shepherd said.

"To say the least." Eddington said.

Hawk shot him a glare. Eddington gave a bare half smile with a snide expression.

"And this Task Force 141 of yours?" Hawk asked.

"They've met with a fair amount of success themselves, especially addressing this latest threat called the Heartless." Shepherd replied.

"Really?" Hawk said, "I am aware that there were a couple missions in Mexico involving a joint operation with the CIA."

"Among other elements. But we're looking to put our heads together with the subject matter experts in dealing with the Heartless." Shepherd said.

"What exactly are you requesting?" Hawk replied.

"I've got three teams from Task Force 141 and their kit. We'd need some space on the Pit." Shepherd asked.

"Hmm, I'm sure that can be arranged." Hawk said, mentally going through some calculations. Sure they could fit the TF 141, but where on the base, and more importantly how would he keep an eye on them. And then the idea hit him like a ton of bricks.

_Misfit Manor. The Misfits could keep the TF-141 guys from getting around and we've got plenty of people who could easily keep tabs on them. _Hawk thought before saying, "I'd be more than happy to help, and I've got just the place."

"Good. I'll contact my teams that will be on the Pit with you." Shepherd replied.

* * *

"That was another good test of those creatures." Axel remarked to Vexen, "Now mutating the acklays and nexus into Heartless can make them even more powerful."

"Already done. And I'm certain Mindbender wouldn't mind even more samples." Vexen remarked.

"He wouldn't, and the Paradise Valley area is a perfect test site. Danielle Atron almost entirely controls the town." Axel remarked.

"More like controlled." Larxene remarked, "Danielle Atron is dead."

"That is no bother." Vexen replied, "We have gotten all we needed from her. If she were alive, she could easily have revealed part of what we were up to."

"These people believe they're going to divide their world amongst themselves with our help, having no idea that we will take them down." Xemnas replied.

"There is the matter of Paradise Valley." Demyx remarked.

"Well, true," Xemnas said, "Danielle Atron very likely may have left some loose ends lying about. And I see an opportunity to not only to tie off the loose ends, but also test out some of those newer varieties of Heartless."

Vexen smiled and said, "It will be done at once. And it looks like our COBRA friends have the same idea."

Vexen waved his hand over the table, showing scenes of Xamot and Tomax sitting behind their desks at Extensive Enterprises, giving one order.

"Atron is dead. Initiate Operation..." Xamot began.

"...Leave no Trace." Tomax replied.

* * *

The sounds of roars and explosions could be heard just then. "What the hell?" Althea asked.

Draper had his radio clutched to his ear and as he listened the color drained from his face, "Dear God."

"Draper, what's going on?" Shipwreck said.

Draper turned the laptop he was working on towards Shipwreck. It showed live video feed from a UAV hovering over the area. Heartless were running through the streets chasing down citizens, with several COBRA Crimson Guard troopers moving methodically through the city, shooting anyone they came into contact with. Larger monsters were wrecking buildings around Paradise Valley.

"Drape, does the UAV have weapons?" Shipwreck asked.

"No it doesn't." Draper said angrily, "And there's not going to be another one anytime soon."

"Draper," Cover Girl began, "You and Angela get on the horn to the Pit, get as many rescue birds and gunships out here as you can."

"Where are you guys going?" Angela asked.

"We're going to do what we can to stop those things. We need those birds ASAP." Cover Girl remarked as she reloaded her weapons.

"Paige, can you orb us all over there?" Cover Girl asked.

"I've never tried that before. But I'll give it my best shot." Paige said, "Just be sure everyone gets close to me."

Ted stood until he was brushed up beside his fiancee.

"Not that I don't appreciate cuddle time, Ted, but this isn't the time or place." Paige quipped.

"Sweeting, there's a practical reason behind that. Namely to keep Shipwreck from attempting the same thing." Ted remarked with a sardonic grin.

The Joes, X-men and Misfits bunched up by Paige and Annie and Alex also headed over.

"Where do you think you're going?" Roadblock remarked.

"This is our hometown, we know it better than anyone of you." Annie remarked.

"And I'm not about to let those Heartless things or COBRA destroy my home without a fight." Alex said, tears in her eyes.

Roadblock said, "Very well, come with us. Your knowledge should be a plus."

"Good luck guys." Angela said, as she tapped keys on her laptop, "I have camera footage from you guys. I can see and guide you."

"I've got the Pit on the horn, they'll be sending air support via the Mass Device express." Draper remarked.

"Let's get to it then." Cover Girl remarked, "Paige..."

Paige took a deep breath and closed her eyes, concentrating as hard as she could and in a soft shower of blue orbs the X-men, Misfits, and G.I. Joes disappeared.

* * *

The X-men, Misfits and Joes materialized on a hill overlooking Paradise Valley, below them they could see the destruction and a gray Isuzu Rodeo making its way along the backroad. It was around then that Annie lost her footing, falling down the hill.

"Annie!" Alex yelped with alarm as her sister rolled into the road below, into the path of the oncoming SUV.

"Bloody Hell." Captain John "Soap" MacTavish remarked as he peered out of the gray Isuzu Rodeo's passenger side window as the vehicle moved along the road out of Paradise Valley.

Flames shot out of a destroyed car as an acklay smashed it with its claws. The creature was branded with the symbol of the Heartless and glowing heart shapes flew into the air along with flame and smoke.

"What the devil is that thing?" Lieutenant Simon "Ghost" Riley remarked from the back seat.

"I know what it is but it shouldn't sodding exist." Sergeant Gary "Roach" Sanderson replied from behind the steering wheel.

"It's real enough to be wrecking the town with an assortment of other creatures." Corporal Nace Bilby remarked from the back seat.

"There's bugger all we can do against all this." Ghost said, "We'd best get to ground and...Roach what the hell!"

The car swerved as Roach cranked the steering wheel with a hard right, bringing them through a wire fence right into a pasture. The vehicle fishtailed a few feet after a rather substantial bump and skidded to a halt.

"What the hell was that for?" Ghost demanded.

"There was a girl in the road." Roach protested.

"Roach, for fuck's sake this is neither the time nor the place to go barking mad with 'girl in the road' ghost stories." Ghost said, irritated as he rummaged around in the back seat to grab the tool kit.

"No, the man's right." MacTavish remarked. On the side of the road a young woman with shoulder length brown hair was standing up.

"She might be injured." Roach said as he raced over, grabbing the medikit.

"Roach, now's not the time." MacTavish said, racing after him.

"She's mixed up in all this somehow. Someone doesn't bloody appear out of nowhere into a road." Roach said.

"I'll relay this to HQ. Something tells me Shepherd's gonna want to hear about this." Ghost remarked.

Annie shakily got to her feet, brushing gravel, dust and occasional flecks of grass off her clothing and skin as she stood up. Other than a few scratches and scrapes she was alright. That gray SUV had missed her, skidding into the cow pasture.

She saw two men running out of the thing. Two men wearing blue jeans, dark colored shirts and military looking vests and weapons. One of them was a stocky fellow with a brown mohawk and a beard stubble and the other was a bit taller and leaner with black hair. Both of them had British flags on their vests.

_Mercenaries of some kind? G.I. Joe Allies? What a hell of a day. Kidnapped by a shape shifter, seeing creatures that shouldn't exist destroying my home town and..._Annie thought as the two Brits reached her.

"Are you alright?" the taller one said.

"I'm fine, just a bit shaken." Annie remarked as she looked into the face of the first one, a medic of some kind judging by the trauma bag he was carrying in his left hand.

"I can imagine." the Englishman said, "How did you get here?"

"This is going to sound crazy." Annie began, "But I assure you I'm not insane."

"Roach..." the man with the mohawk remarked with a thick Scottish accent.

_A codename of some kind?_ Annie thought. _What kind of parents name their kid Roach? _

"Well, start with your name, miss." Roach replied.

"Annie Mack." she said as Roach gently guided her to a sitting position, examining her for injuries.

He took a penlight, gently holding Annie's eyelids open, checking for signs of a concussion. "You're alright. For someone who just took a fall down a hill I give you a clean bill of health."

"Ghost, what's the state of the truck?" the Scotsman called.

"It's buggered." Ghost remarked, after crawling under the truck, "Stuck fast and the front axle is broken thanks to a rock we ran over."

"Annie!" came a shout from up the hill.

"Alex, I'm ok." Annie shouted back.

_For being surrounded by four commando guys with guns. _Annie thought as she took in the four men, hoping she hadn't rolled into a hostage situation for the second time.

The other two men ran over to talk to the Scotsman. One of them was a rather muscular fellow, a bit shorter than Roach, wearing green trousers and a lighter green shirt with a British flag sewn on it. A black balaclava with a white skull print and reddish tan sunglasses and a radio headset completed the look.

"Ghost, she's a local citizen of the area." Roach remarked, "Harmless enough."

The masked man turned, aiming his ACR up the hill and said, "Glad to hear that, Roach, but there's the miniscule problem of those other blokes coming down the hill."

Roach moved in front of Annie, levelling his own rifle up the hill, as if to protect her.

"Don't! They won't hurt you guys, unless you're part of COBRA or something." Annie remarked.

"No, we're not part of that particular group." Ghost remarked dourly as he lowered his own weapon.

"Although the mask could possibly give one that impression." the fourth man, a deeply tanned fellow with a South African flag sewn onto his body armor vest remarked.

"Bollocks to you, Nace." Ghost remarked.

The X-men, Misfits and Joes wandered into the field towards the Task Force 141 team.

"I recognize them now." Ghost remarked, "They're the wankers from Bayville. From the Sentinel Incident."

"So the sixty-four dollar question remains," Althea remarked, "Who are _**you **_guys?"

"Not at liberty to discuss, lass." Soap remarked after Roach finished his examination on Annie and helped her to her feet.

"Wait, I think we're on the same side." Cover Girl remarked as she listened in on her own radio, "I'm on the line with Angela."

Right about then Ghost was answering a radio call as well, "Right boss. We're working with them? Understood..."

"Again, who are you guys?" Althea replied.

"One of them looks like he could pass for Beach Head, except he actually bathes." Pietro remarked.

"You must be the Misfits then." Soap remarked, before extending a massive hand, "John MacTavish."

"Also called Soap." Roach remarked as Soap shot him a glare.

"Gary Sanderson." Roach continued, and with an ironic smile adding, "Also known as Roach."

"Simon Riley." Ghost replied brusquely.

"Or Ghost as we call him." the South African replied, before introducing himself, "Nace Bilby."

"We're from Task Force 141. We've been assigned to work with your lot." Soap remarked.

"We could use all the help we can get." Shipwreck replied, "Now let's quit jawing and get going."

"Whatever those things are, we observed them coming out of the Chemical Plant." Ghost replied.

"We'll help the civilians," Shipwreck remarked, "Forge, Annie, you guys go with Soap and that group to the Chemical Plant, maybe we can find a way to stop these things there."

"Roach, keep an eye on those two." Soap remarked, "They are civvies after all."

"Nace, go with the snipers and overwatch our approach." Ghost added.

"Aye." Nace replied as he gripped his M14 Enhanced Battle Rifle and followed Mountaineer and Lowlight.

The Task Force 141 group plus Forge and Annie waited to head to the Paradise Vallley Chemical Plant as Mountaineer and Low Light moved to the first building overlooking the plant to set up an overwatch position.

"Soap, this is Nace, we're in position." Nace's voice echoed over the radio.

"Right, we're moving." Soap replied over his own radio.

"Angela, I've got Wild Bill leading a group of four gunships and two Predator Drones." Draper remarked.

"Good, I got through to the Pit. Ace is sending the rescue birds after them. I'm putting in the landing zones on every broadcast system in Paradise Valley." Angela said as she typed away at her computer.

"Let me know when the birds get into the airspace." Draper replied, "I'll have gun runs going left and right."

"I'll say this for Atron, she had an efficient surveillance and broadcast system in the town. I've hacked in and can guide the teams to any survivors." Angela said.

"Brilliant." Draper remarked, "Hot damn! First Predator is in the airspace and I've got control. Targeting those COBRA armored Jeeps near Shipwreck's team."

"Way ahead of you, Carl. I told them to hold position and you're bringing fireworks down." Angela said.

"Reaper One One, you're cleared hot. Engage those armored jeeps. Come in bearing 270, from Angels 15."

Angela glanced up, seeing the Predator drone racing towards them, firing its Hellfire missiles.

"Good shooting, Drape!" Shipwreck's voice bellowed over the radio.

"I've got an acklay moving north to you guys' position. It's not reacting to you, so don't provoke it." Draper began.

"Drape! I think it's already pissed off. It's levelling the block." Shipwreck said.

"Got a pest problem there, 'Wreck?" Wild Bill said over the comm, "I've got that critter in my sights."

Wild Bill blasted away with the 30mm Chain Gun on his Apache, blasting the acklay down.

"Nice shooting, Tex, now kindly get the hell back, I've got another Predator racing in on a missile run. A midair collision isn't what I've had in mind." Draper remarked.

"Gotcha, Drape! Wilco!" Wild Bill said.

* * *

Ghost reached the doors of the Paradise Valley Chemical plant and kicked one of them in before running inside, MacTavish behind him. Forge followed Soap with Annie behind Forge and Roach was bringing up the rear.

"Which way to the control room?" Ghost asked.

"Second floor up, and to to the right." Annie replied.

"Looks deserted." Roach remarked as he scanned the room, "Like the Paradise Valley wankers buggered off after Atron got hit."

Annie wanted to ask Roach how he knew about that particularly recent piece of Paradise Valley history. She'd had a vague idea that Roach and his team knew more than they let on, particularly when she'd seen the hard long cases that looked to have contained sniper rifles in them.

"Ambush! Look out!" Ghost shouted as several bursts of gunfire sounded simultaneously from upstairs. Roach pushed Annie behind the receptionist's desk as several bullets smacked into the wall behind her.

Roach dropped to one knee and let off several rounds from his ACR at the Crimson Guard soldier, killing him.

Ghost lobbed a grenade up the staircase and after a loud bang a scream could be heard. "Moving up the stairs!" Ghost shouted and Soap stood up, barreling up after Ghost.

Roach followed with Annie and Forge on his heels as they moved up the staircase.

"COBRA Crimson Guard." Ghost remarked as he toe tapped a corpse, to ensure the man wasn't playing possum.

"Oh my God!" Annie remarked, horrified.

Lining the wall were several employees of Paradise Valley Chemical Plant. Their hands were bound behind them and they had all been shot execution style. Blood and bits of brain and skull fragments adhered to the wall near bullet holes.

"Firing squad. Looks like whoever was pulling the strings behind the scenes with Atron wasn't about to leave loose ends." Ghost remarked.

Annie felt her heart sink as she took in the scene of several of her co-workers lined up along the wall on their knees. _On her knees, hands bound, crying or pleading, heading gun shots and footsteps as the Crimson Guard soldiers walked down the line, shooting each Paradise Valley employee in the head..._Annie thought.

"Come on, let's go." Roach said, gently, his left hand on her shoulder, "We can't do anything else for them. We just have to make sure they didn't die for nothing."

Annie blinked back a tear and and stifled a sob before nodding.

"Looks like they wrecked the labs too." Forge remarked as he smelled the smoke and noticed the dampness in the hallway, as if the fire extinguishers had all gone off.

"Whatever was here they sure were going to great lengths to destroy or capture the research." Ghost remarked, "Let's hope we can salvage some data."

"Annie," Roach asked, "How far to the control room?"

"Down the hall and to the left." Annie hiccuped, "But it's likely been locked down."

"We'll worry about that, lass." Soap remarked, "Ghost if there's an intact terminal start downloading all the data you can mine out of it."

"Right." Ghost replied.

As they moved towards the control room a burst of gunfire sounded, narrowly missing Ghost.

Ghost lobbed a grenade down the hall, but still the firing continued unabated. "We can't go down that way, they'll shred us to bits."

"The fiber optic service tunnels." Annie said, "We can get access to them through Atron's office to my right."

"Let's get to it then." Soap said as Roach opened the door.

The window to Danielle Atron's office was still shattered from the rounds he and Ghost had fired and Atron's corpse still lay on the floor, a massive hole blasted through her torso. Roach had killed before, and Atron had been responsible for the deaths of three ACME detectives, one of which he..._Best not to think of that. The bitch is dead, as she deserves. Nothing more, nothing less._Roach thought.

Annie for her part felt mixed emotions. _Danielle was ruthless, unethical, lorded over the town like she owned it. She would've caged Alex without even a thought, but even she didn't deserve to be shot like this, in cold blood._

She saw Roach approach Atron's corpse and gently close Atron's eyelids with his fingers, as he gently muttered, "Requiem In Pace."

_Strange. _Annie thought. _It's more than just respect for the dead. And he didn't do that with any of the other corpses. Why is he doing that with this one?_

"Annie?" Ghost asked.

Annie didn't respond at first as she stood, lost in thought.

"Oi, Annie, where's the access tunnel?" Ghost asked.

"Oh." Annie said, snapped back into reality, "Far corner of the room, near the bookcase." Annie replied and Ghost pulled it open before he tossed a flashbang grenade into the tunnel to stun anything lurking down there before he hopped in with Soap following behind him.

"All clear." Ghost remarked.

Roach dropped to one knee, listening to his radio, "Ghost, we'd better get a move on. We've got company approaching the building, Nace and the lot are engaging them."

* * *

"Bloody third herd headed that way." Nace began as he snapped off shots at the Crimson Guard and Heartless approaching the Chemical Plant.

"Reloading." Ted remarked as he snapped in another magazine for his SAM-R.

"Ghost, this is Nace, we've got Crimson Guard regulars headed your way. We're providing sniper cover." Nace said into his radio, snapping more rounds towards the Crimson Guards.

"Hey Draper, got any air support headed our way?" Low Light said over the radio.

"Yes, I've got a Predator drone on station with two Apache gunships coming in." Draper said.

"We could use it right now." Low Light said as machinegun fire blasted into the snipers' hide.

"Way ahead of you, I suggest you guys duck!" Draper said over the radio as two Hellfire missiles flew off the Predator, blowing apart the two Crimson Guard vehicles.

"Baseplate this is Sierra," Nace said, "Sitrep, providing covering fire for Objective Chargers, getting the intel dump squared away."

"Hope this Ghost fellow's as capable a hacker as you claim, we're about to get company." Low Light said, snapping rounds downrange at several Crimson Guard troopers. He'd dropped two of them with accurate shots, but the rest took cover and were now firing long bursts at their position. Low Light moved away from the hole he'd punched in the wall earlier.

"Need some help here, Drape." Ted spoke into his own radio.

"Gotcha. I'm bringing the UAV around for another pass..." Draper replied.

Meanwhile at the Pit Major Martin Lansor, US Marine Corps, walked into the Tactical Operations Center. He was a six foot tall, silver haired, muscular fellow wearing the digital desert camouflage of the US Marine Corps. He was the field commander for three teams of Task Force 141 currently operating all around the world.

His main focus was the Troops in Contact report he'd gotten from Nace. Evidently Sierra had, after executing the Atron mission, had diverted to assist the Misfits, X-men and G.I. Joe personnel in evacuating Paradise Valley.

He stood behind two computer types nicknamed Sorcerer and Arcade, listening to them talk briefly into internet and radio headsets, no doubt speaking to the female FBI computer hacker, Angela Bennett, and the Air Force combat controller Carl Draper.

He had received the latest radio reports from MacTavish's team about Paradise Valley being levelled by COBRA.

He noticed Senior Airman George Strickland listening to his own radio, talking to various aircraft moving towards Paradise Valley, vectoring helicopters to landing zones to rescue citizens and gunships to attack COBRA elements and the strange monsters levelling the town.

He had his own radio link to his command post he'd set up in the building that General Hawk had allocated to his men.

"What's the status?" Lansor asked Strickland.

"The teams are moving through Paradise Valley, getting as many civvies to the landing site as possible." Strickland said.

"Alright, thanks." Lansor replied before getting on his own radio, "Ghost, what's the status?"

* * *

"Bloody hell." Ghost remarked, moving his ACR out of the way so he could better type on the computer before answering Major Lansor's Call, "Baseplate, this is Sierra, just got into the computer lab and we're rather popular at the moment..."

As he spoke Roach was shooting steadily at a group of Shadow Heartless that poured out of a side office before he tossed a grenade into it.

"Do you think you could not fire that thing so close to my head?" Forge replied as he was attaching a portable hard drive to the computer as Ghost was typing away at the keyboard.

"Shut it!" Roach replied tersely as he noticed more Heartless heading their way, firing his ACR steadily.

"Annie, can you use your access codes to get into the system?" Soap asked.

"I'd already tried when Ghost asked earlier. Evidently my codes were erased, no doubt by Mystique as she tried to 'erase' me." Annie replied.

"Roach, can you not..." Forge replied only for Roach to fire another burst at the remaining Heartless before reloading his ACR.

"Forge, are you alright?" Roach asked.

"What?" Forge loudly yelled.

"I said are you alright?" Roach replied.

"I can't hear you! Thanks for blasting that thing next to my head!" Forge snapped.

"Oh, for fuck's sake, mate! Would you rather the Heartless got you while you were pissing about with that computer." Roach replied, rolling his eyes.

"What?" Forge asked, ears ringing.

"Will both of you knock it off! I'm trying to work here." Ghost replied.

Annie couldn't help but laugh lightly.

"What's so funny?" Soap asked.

"I don't know, but I'm thinking it's all the stress." Annie replied, "First I get kidnapped by some shapeshifter, then I get rescued, and then my hometown is under attack. And now I see your two friends and Forge arguing about one of them going deaf."

"What was that? I can't hear anything right now! No thanks to this guy!" Forge shouted.

Now Soap let out a short, caustic laugh about Forge's situation and then Roach started to chuckle.

"Wanker." Ghost grumbled and laughed as well as he punched away at the keyboard.

"How's the download going?" Soap asked.

"We've got another fifteen minutes." Ghost replied.

"Ok, just make sure you don't fire your rifle next to Forge's head again, Roach." Soap remarked.

Roach gave a short chuckle back, "I'll do my best, mate."

"What?" Forge shouted.

Ghost continued typing away at the keyboard, entering more commands and then an alarm went off and a message flashed across the scene. "Oh bollocks!" Ghost said.

"What's going on?" Roach asked.

"There's a bloody auto destruct sequence, set to go off in less than an hour." Ghost replied.

"For this lab?" Annie asked.

"The whole sodding town." Ghost replied.

* * *

To Be Continued.


	7. Autodestruct

**Autodestruct**

**Disclaimer: Same as before. The Task Force 141 Characters in this story are from the Call of Duty Franchise (mostly Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2).**

* * *

_No, for the whole sodding town. _Ghost's words rang in Annie's ears and she felt the blood drain from her face.

"Can you stop it?" Annie said.

"I'll run a bypass, but I can't guarantee anything." Ghost said as his fingers danced across the keyboard.

"Baseplate, this is Sierra." Soap began over the radio, "There's an autodestruct sequence set to blow this town off the map in less than an hour."

Soap craned his neck to glance over Ghost's shoulder, "Forty-five minutes to be exact."

"Soap, we've got more trouble headed our way." Roach added as he glanced at a nearby security monitor, it showed several Heartless and two squads of Crimson Guard soldiers headed their way.

"Add it to the list, Roach." Soap remarked.

"Maybe two minds can help instead of one?" a female voice came over Ghost's headset.

"Who is this?" Ghost replied.

"Angela Bennett, let's skip the explanation for now. Let me help." Angela replied.

"I'll vouch for her." Annie spoke up, "She saved my life."

"Other than being a bloody angel of mercy what are her qualifications?" Ghost replied.

"She's a computer expert." Annie replied.

"Perfect." Ghost remarked as he went back to work.

* * *

"Can you help them?" Draper asked Angela as he held a radio in one hand, his rifle in the other.

"I'll see what I can do." Angela replied.

"Shit!" Draper growled, dropping his radio headset, shooting his rifle rapidly at a trio of Heartless that popped up.

"Draper," Angela replied, somewhat irritated, "Can you not fire that thing off so close to me!"

"Gladly! If I could somehow serenade Heartless to death I'd start singing, but for now..." Draper said, shooting more rounds at a couple more Heartless that popped up.

"Don't do that again!" Angela snapped.

"Oh for crying out loud." Draper replied, picking his radio handset back up, speaking rapidly to several aircraft, vectoring one flight of rescue aircraft to a landing site the Misfits had marked and another two gunships in to attack a cluster of Heartless.

* * *

"Here, get onboard." Shipwreck said as he escorted an old woman holding the hand of a frightened toddler.

The woman wordlessly nodded and shuffled aboard the helicopter. Blob picked up a Neoshadow, airplane spun it over his head and then smashed him against the ground before stomping on the Heartless' skull.

Xi noticed an Airsoldier headed their way and yelled to Blob, "Alley!"

Blob squatted down as Xi hopped on his back then jumped as high as he could before yelling, "OOP!"

Xi hopped off Blob and launched himself at the Airsoldier, slamming the flying Heartless into the ground. Blob hit the ground and it shook just before Xi landed, ripping the Airsoldier apart.

"Nice Alley Oop, but can you guys not shake the landing zone next time?" Althea remarked as Lance used his powers to knock over a fire hydrant and Althea used the water spout as a flying weapon.

"Projectile!" Paige shouted and sent a projectile flying back at a Powerwild trying to shoot the helicopter as it took off.

A shot cracked and a Soldier Heartless that had tried to sneak up on Paige fell dead to the ground. _Watch your back, love. _Ted's voice echoed into Paige's head, through the empathic bond.

Paige smiled despite herself and saw Ted wave at her from his sniper hide before he fired another two rounds towards an unseen threat.

* * *

"Try that last line of code again." Ghost spoke into his microphone as he frantically tapped away at the keyboard.

"I just did. No dice." Angela said.

Thirty minutes remained until the town of Paradise Valley was set to explode.

"Ghost, any luck?" Soap shouted.

"None." Ghost said, "Bloody Atron knew how to write encryption. I keep hitting interrogative subroutines every time I try to get into the source code."

"Forge!" Annie shouted as Forge hit the ground, a round having struck his leg.

"Annie! Watch out!" Roach said, firing his ACR with rapid single shots, taking out two Crimson Guard soldiers rushing at the room.

Annie grabbed Forge by the collar and pulled, Roach reached down and grabbed Forge's arm, pulling as well as he aimed and fired one handed as best he could.

Roach handed Annie his medical kit, "Put a tourniquet above that wound and stop the bleeding."

"Can you give me a hand?" Annie asked.

"I've got a few other fish to fry at the moment!" Roach replied, firing his ACR steadily before his magazine ran dry. He reached for the pistol at his hip and started shooting rapidly as well before he shouted, "Reloading!"

"I've got you covered!" Soap replied.

"I swear if I hear any wankers complaining about working on a computer again..." Ghost grumbled as he continued punching away at keys on the keyboard.

Forge groaned in pain as Annie put the tourniquet onto him and winced as she tightened the tourniquet before she grabbed a handful of gauze and packed it onto Forge's wound then wound a bandage around it.

"Try that line of encryption, it looks like a trap door." Angela's voice echoed into Ghost's headset.

"Right." Ghost said as he began to punch away at the keys and then he exclaimed, "Bloody hell!"

"Ghost, what's the matter?" Soap asked.

"That sodding trap door was a head fake! The sodding Chemical Plant is going to explode in ten minutes if I don't supply the right authentications." Ghost snapped.

"I'll try and deactivate it remotely." Angela replied.

"Ghost, if you can't fix this in five minutes we'd best get out of here." Soap countered.

"Let me help!" Annie announced as she headed over to Ghost.

"You designed this bloody system?" Ghost said, annoyance in his voice.

"No, I didn't. But I know Atron better than anyone alive in this room." Annie replied.

"Fair enough." Ghost replied and moved aside to let Annie get a look.

Annie lightly tapped Forge's arm and spoke slowly enough for him to lip read, "I'm going to help Ghost."

"What?" Forge said, still somewhat deafened by Roach having fired his rifle so close to his head.

Annie hurried over to where Ghost was currently working and looked at the first interrogation. This one was straight forward, the name of the public relations contact she dealt with most often. She typed in her mother's name and another interrogation popped up.

Annie typed in the name of the Austrian chemist Mystique had impersonated. And the a third interrogative popped up. The question was this, "Who was the driver in the GC-161 accident?"

Annie knew who it was and typed in Dave Watt. Only to see the screen go blue and show a countdown. Five minutes.

"Ghost? What's going on?" Angela's voice echoed.

"Sodding interrogative was yet another head fake." Ghost remarked, "The plant's going to explode in five minutes and the town in another half hour!"

"No choice!" Soap said as he began to disconnect the hard drive and shoved it into Ghost's backpack.

"Right! Annie, help me with Forge." Ghost said.

"Roach, clear us a path." Soap said.

"Aye!" Roach replied, heading out into the hall. Annie could hear several shots as Roach was complying with Soap's order. Soap came running and began shooting as well.

"You're clear! Go ahead!" Roach shouted.

Annie grunted as she took one of Forge's arms and Ghost grabbed the other arm, moving Forge along through the building. Ghost's ACR was slung at his side, and he had his pistol out, since he could better shoot it one handed.

"Baseplate, this is Sierra, the chemical plant is going to blow in five minutes! The town's going to go up in half an hour. We can't stop it!" Soap spoke into his radio.

* * *

"All units, this is Baseplate. Town is going to blow in half an hour! Get as many of the civvies to safety as possible!" The command echoed over every communication device that the Joes, X-men, Misfits and Task Force 141 operatives had.

"Jesus Christ." Royce, one of the Task Force 141 operatives, grumbled as he sprinted across the parking lot of the Paradise Valley Elementary School. The shots he was hearing were coming from that direction.

"Royce, this is Nace, we're providing cover for you. There are some wankers in the school we can't get shots at." The voice of his teammate echoed into Royce's headset as he ran.

As they got to the school entrance and ran inside Royce saw two Crimson Guard soldiers, having shot a teacher, try and break into a classroom. Royce let them have it with bursts of fire from his M4A1.

He glanced over his shoulder and saw Meat, a hulking Samoan from Australia's Special Air Service Regiment, go running past the door, taking aim down a hallway.

Royce pushed in the ruined door and walked straight into a cacophony of panicked screaming and crying from terrified school kids. "We're here to help you guys. I'm not going to let anything happen to you."

He saw Cover Girl and Shipwreck, the two G.I. Joes, running in behind him and said, "I'm going with Meat down the hall and checking the next class room over."

"We've got Quicksilver and Nightcrawler working upstairs." Shipwreck remarked.

"The mutants?" Royce asked.

"Yep." Shipwreck replied.

Meat and Royce raced down the hall, searching classrooms and hallways, evacuating students and staff towards the front of the school.

"Lookout!" A child shouted as Soldier Heartless popped up from around a corner. Shipwreck blasted both of them with his twin Desert Eagles.

"Thanks kiddo! I owe you one." Shipwreck said.

"Shipwreck, that one better be a soda!" Cover Girl quipped.

"Give me some credit here, even I know not to give alcohol to minors." Shipwreck replied.

_Are they always this nuts? _Royce thought. _Do I really care? No, I care about getting these people outta here. Ghost says this place is gonna blow in half an hour and counting down. _

"Moving upstairs!" Carter, one of the Task Force 141 operators, shouted.

Meat followed him and Royce moved in a dead sprint up the same staircase in time to see Quicksilver and Nightcrawler leading a group of students and staff down the staircase towards the courtyard where a helicopter had landed and two others waited to land above it. Two gunships flew nearby, shooting the hell out of any COBRA or Heartless that came too close to the school.

"This is Royce, Paradise Valley Elementary School evacuated." Royce spoke into his radio.

* * *

"Hang on Forge." Annie said to Forge as she helped him along.

Up ahead Roach and Soap were leading the way forward, barely stopping, shooting any enemy that came into their path.

"Almost to the building front. Roach, can you hotwire a vehicle?" Ghost said.

"Of course." Roach replied.

"Bloody hell, we wouldn't have had to do that if we hadn't wrecked the sodding vehicle." Ghost grumbled.

Annie shot Ghost a look, "Would you rather you guys ran me over?"

"Good point." Ghost replied as they ran into the parking lot. Roach went over to an SUV with the Paradise Valley Chemical Plant logo on it and began to work the lock before getting into the car, hotwiring the vehicle.

Annie heard the engine turn over and Ghost opened the back door, laying Forge across the back seats before he and Annie piled in. Soap ran into the front seat and Roach immediately started driving.

"Roach, try and keep us on the road this time." Ghost remarked.

"Bollocks to you, Ghost." Roach remarked with a light snicker as he floored the accelerator driving towards the school landing zone.

"Hang on!" Roach said as he drove them up onto the nearest sidewalk to dodge a barricade.

"So much for staying on the road." Ghost remarked, shoving his ACR out of a window and firing steadily at any Heartless that happened to appear.

Roach drove them down a smaller back road, noticing an acklay that was currently wrecking a building. Hoping the monster hadn't noticed them he continued to drive down the side street, which was near some ranchland. Roach stomped on the brakes.

"Roach, what the hell?" Ghost remarked.

"Someone's hurt, right by that fence." Roach remarked.

Indeed the barbed wire and chain link fence was torn off it's post and wrapped tightly around a body. "Jesus Christ!" Ghost remarked before grabbing the first aid kit and running over.

Appraising the red hair and the costume, "He looks like one of the mutant lads. Is he one of the X-men?"

Forge craned his neck and said, "I don't think so. I think that's Pyro, one of Magneto's Acolytes."

"One of the enemy." Ghost remarked.

"Enemy or not we should help him." Annie replied.

"Lass, that seriously cuts into time we don't have..." Soap objected.

"We can't just leave him here." Annie replied.

"Right, we'll leave this to a vote." Roach suggested.

"Roach, this isn't sodding time for democracy." Ghost snapped back.

"Right," Soap said, "We each put in an input, whatever the consensus is we act. Ghost?"

"We've got to keep moving. This town's going to blow and we have important data." Ghost replied.

Soap turned to Forge. Forge looked at him and then Ghost saying, "We can't just leave him to bleed to death out there."

Soap glanced at Annie, "Look, if we can get him out of all that metal we can haul him into the car and be on our way."

"It's a big risk, and I agree with Ghost." Soap said, and glanced over to Roach, "Looks like you've got the deciding vote, mate."

"He may be the enemy but we can't just let him bleed to death out there. Besides if we bring him back alive we could find out Magento's plans." Roach said, "Or at least new intelligence."

Soap nodded and said, "Right, Ghost, Annie you're with me. Roach, keep the engine running."

They stepped out of the vehicle, Ghost and Soap carrying wire cutters and Annie carrying Roach's first aid bag.

Pyro let out a moan and feebly struggled, trying to get away from the three humans.

"Hold still." Annie said, "We're not going to hurt you..."

Pyro could barely moan any response and lay still, blood spurting lazily onto the grass. Ghost stood over him, cutting away at strands of wire with the wire cutters.

"How in God's name could this have happened?" Ghost asked.

* * *

Five Minutes Earlier:

Pyro caught his breath as he stood on top of one of the hills overlooking Paradise Valley. Between Danielle Atron's security forces, panicked civilians, and various Heartless and COBRAs he had barely been able to get to the top of the hill.

He waited at the hilltop before activating his communicator and as expected he saw the hollow metal spheres Magneto used to transport his operatives anywhere in the world. The sphere opened and out stepped the Master of Magnetism himself.

"Hullo Boss," Pyro said, "Come to congratulate me personally for a job well done?"

"Pyro," Magneto said, with a low growl, "You have failed me for the last time."

"What? The Mack family is dead! They can't have survived that blaze?" Pyro said, pointing to the burning house that was the Mack family's former home, "Even if the Misfits came there, I made sure to burn the place down."

"No Pyro, they survived and you failed to kill them, when the Misfits chased you off you failed to finish the job." Magneto began, "I cannot have someone like you failing constantly."

"Wh-what does that mean?" Pyro asked.

"This. Is. The. End." Magneto said, enunciating every word. As he spoke barbed wire strands from nearby fences tore from off their posts. Wrapping around Pyro, the sharp barbs cut into flesh. Bones began to break. Blood spurted and sputtered.

The last thing Pyro would see before losing consciousness was Magento stepping back into the metal sphere and the sphere flying off over the horizon.

* * *

"Last flight is coming in." Draper said to Angela.

"I hope you're planning on getting us out as well." Angela replied.

"Don't worry I've got us on the last flight. Us and the snipers they're pulling out by the SPIE rigs. We're the last ones out." Draper said.

"The what?" Angela asked.

"Special Purpose Insertion and Extraction Rig." Draper said, as he checked the carabiner on his webbing and reached into his pack for another specialized harness that looked like a modified climbing harness. He handed it to Angela and helped her step into the harness.

"And how does this thing work?" Angela asked.

"They'll lay out a special line and we clip into it and the aircraft flies off." Draper said.

"So we're basically gonna get towed along through the air like yo yos?" Angela asked.

"Effectively, yes." Draper replied, "It's a fast, efficient means of extraction."

Angela began to turn off her computer and stuffed it into a laptop bag before securing it to her harness. She noticed Carl doing the same with his equipment as he said, "They're gonna grab the snipers with one bird and then they're grabbing us."  
Draper tossed a cable to Angela, linking their two rigs and ensuring a specialized cable end with a heavy duty carabiner on the far side of it was secured to the cable's midpoint.

"I assume that's hooking us to the bird?" Angela asked.

"Yes." Draper replied.

"How far away is the helicopter?" Angela asked.

"About sixty seconds, give or take..." Draper said.

* * *

"Last bird's away." Nace said as he listened to his radio.

"SPIE rig extraction, the bird is ninety seconds out." Ted replied as he tossed the connecting cable to both Low Light and Nace. The two men hooked in and the sound of the flying helicopter could be heard.

As the helicopter flew past the cable went taut as the hook attached to a winch and cable assembly on the helicopter came into contact. Then the team was lifted into the air.

* * *

"Bird's enroute, thirty seconds." Draper said as he took one more glance at his watch, "That leaves me time to ask you something."

"And what's that?" Angela asked.

"Will you marry me?" Draper replied.

As the helicopter approached Angela had to shout to be heard, "Of all the times. And all the places, you picked _**now **_to propose?"

"Believe me, I'll explain later." Draper said as the helicopter approached and they hooked into its cable, just below the three snipers.

As the helicopter flew off they could see the town starting to explode below. From the Paradise Valley Chemical Plant's grounds radiating outward explosions detonated one after the other, bright and terrible flashes into the sky.

Annie had tears in her eyes as she held her sister, who was crying, against her chest. Roach put a calming hand on her shoulder as he cast a quick glance over to Pyro, who lay strapped to a gurney, with an oxygen mask on as the helicopter flew away from the continuously exploding town...

* * *

"A pity Paradise Valley was destroyed." Trelawney remarked.

"No thanks to you triggering Danielle Atron's autodestruct program, remotely I might add." Cobra Commander remarked.

"Last time I checked you had played a rather substantial role in wrecking Paradise Valley as well. The mutated acklay and nexu Heartless, the Cobra La Heartless, and not to mention your Crimson Guard types." Trelawney remarked, "Hardly a subtle operation. We had to cover our footsteps and cut our losses."

"We could have done that without destroying the town, even with that little bitch Atron out of the picture we could have used the assets of the Paradise Valley Chemical Plant." Cobra Commander remarked.

"Oh, and drive Paradise Valley's property values down to that of Bayville in the process?" Trelawney snapped back.

Cobra Commander bristled and Syndrome said, "Gentlemen, gentlemen, let's get back on track here. The mission still was a success. We were able to test those new acklay and nexu Heartless, and they performed admirably."

"And additionally we were able to harvest 50,000 hearts from Paradise Valley." Trelawney said, nodding in agreement.

"So, gentlemen, Phase I is nearing completion, gathering hearts, tests and demonstrations of our power continue, and we need to get ready to start up Phase II." Syndrome said, "Cobra Commander, have you heard of the decaying orbit of the satellite?"

"We've got our forces standing by to retrieve the satellite's ACS module before the US can even have anyone on site." Cobra Commander remarked.

"So you say." Trelawney remarked, "I'll have some of my technical people on hand to help with duplicating its codes."

Cobra Commander grumbled and Syndrome said, "Gentlemen, let's pool our resources and talent pools and quit sniping at one another. We need to keep striking while the iron is hot."

"The ACS codes will allow our planned invasions to take place." Cobra Commander said, smiling behind the mask, "And I can take my revenge on G.I. Joe."

"For a series of humiliating defeats that were entirely due to your incompetence." Trelawney sniped back.

Cobra Commander snapped back at the lead Praetorian, "You're one to talk Mr. My Organization Was Taken Down By a Twenty-Something Brunette and a Teenager!"

"Do I need to turn both of you into Dusks?" Syndrome remarked. The room fell silent, "Good, now, gents, let's turn our planning towards Phase II..."

* * *

**TBC: Up next, the conclusion of this chapter of the saga and newcomers being welcome to the Pit.**

**Alex: Some option, live with maniac mutants at the Xavier Institute or on some Army base with some decidedly unconventional soldiers.**


	8. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

**Disclaimer: Same as before**

**Author's Note: I chose not to use the canon fact that at the end of the Secret World of Alex Mack her secret was revealed.**

* * *

"Fifty thousand dead or missing." General Hawk said as he read the latest reports coming from Paradise Valley, "And one town entirely obliterated."

"And the reports are still coming in. The media is abuzz. Our pal Hector Ramirez is going so far as to blame this on us." Duke replied.

"Any more news, Roadblock?" Hawk asked.

"We have the Acolyte Pyro recovering in the medical ward. But he's recovering from wounds so questioning him will be hard." Roadblock replied.

"We do have new allies, though," Hawk continued, "General Shepherd has three teams from his Task Force 141 here at the Pit. He's agreed to let them work closely with us. Major Lansor here is heading them up."

Hawk indicated the tall, powerfully built US Marine in the room. "Roger sir. My teams are set up, and my thanks for allowing us the use of that facility."

"There's still the matter of the Mack family." Shipwreck said, "After all, they've got nowhere left to go."

"And the matter of the mutant, Pyro." Xavier said, having also been invited to this meeting.

"Agreed." Hawk said, "Hence the purpose of this meeting."

"We would need to talk to the Mack family to see what they want to happen." Lansor said.

"It wouldn't be safe for them to be out and about. The FoH would hunt them down without a doubt." Roadblock said, indicating the TV which showed a brief snippet, "Mutants in Paradise Valley?"

"What do you suggest, Roadblock, placing them in custody?" Xavier said.

"It would be safest." Lansor remarked.

"I can't believe you'd say something like that." Xavier remarked.

"When it comes to protecting innocent people...yes." Lansor said.

"We are not holding American citizens against their will, Lansor." Hawk said, fixing the Marine with a stern gaze.

"Aye sir." Lansor remarked brusquely.

"The question remains, what to do about the Mack family. Because of young Alex's capabilities she's a target." Xavier said.

"It will be their choice." Hawk said, "I'll talk to them later to see what their decision is. In the meantime I've got them set up here."

"Ok, what of Pyro then?" Xavier asked.

"He should stay with us." Hawk said.

"You would keep him on this base?" Xavier said, "As a prisoner?"

"Not as a prisoner, not yet, unless he warrants it." Hawk said, "But given his ties with several of the Misfits, it might not be a bad idea to have him stay with us. And learn that humans can be trusted."

"That isn't a bad idea, General Hawk, but I have my concerns." Xavier said.

* * *

George Mack sat beside his wife on the bed in the small on base hotel at the Pit. He had come in after going on a tour of the Pit in company with Cover Girl and Royce, one of the Task Force 141 operatives, seeing Barbara dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief. "Honey?" he said.

"It's OK, George." Barbara said.

George walked in and put his arm around his wife as they sat on the bed together. "I know things look bad...I admit, they are bad, we got off luckier. For one Pyro didn't succeed in killing us."

"True." Barbara said.

"And General Hawk is ensuring our stay here is paid for." George said.

"We have that meeting with General Hawk this afternoon, right?" Barbara said.

"Yes." George replied, "I'll go talk to the girls about it before we go to the meeting, see what their opinions are."

"Ok, Alex is in the living room and Annie stepped out." Barbara said, "I'm going to take a shower before lunch."

"OK, I'll take care of lunch." George said, "I got some food from my tour of Misfit Manor, Freddy happened to be cooking."

"Freddy?" Barbara asked as she stripped off her clothes and wrapped a towel around her body, "The one that hops?"

"No, that's Toad, or Todd Tolansky. Freddy is Freddy Dukes, the big strong guy they call The Blob or simply Blob." George said, "He's one heck of a cook, if a very creative sort of cook."

"You got food then?" Barbara asked.

"Yeah, I put it in the fridge." George said.

"K, I'll join you guys as soon as I'm done." Barbara said.

George headed out to the living room where Alex was flipping through channels. "Hey, kiddo, what's going on?"

"Just trying to process it all, Dad." Alex said, flipping through news channel after news channel. George noticed she was looking at the latest list of casualties reported from Paradise Valley on the screen of her computer.

Alex rubbed her own eyes, red as well. Thankfully Ray Alvarado and his father had made it out safely, but so many others weren't quite so lucky.

"I am too, kiddo." George said, somberly before saying, "Your mother and I have a meeting with General Hawk this afternoon, discussing a proposal about what happens next."

"You mean staying here?" Alex said, indicating the small hotel room, and the desert base beyond the living room window with one hand.

"Among other things." George said, "And General Hawk did also say you and Annie are invited as well."

"I'll let Annie know when she comes in." Alex said.

"Where did Annie go?" George asked.

"She went out for a walk." Alex said, as her fingers flew across the screen of her iPhone, "I'll send her a text."

* * *

Annie in the shade of a large Joshua tree, on a park bench not far from the hotel. She noticed the large stone statue in the shape of a two legged coyote in a three point stance and holding a football. Despite herself she chuckled, she remembered hearing about one of the mutants who occasionally made statues and other geological works of art in his sleep.

_Not quite some of the statues around Paradise Valley, but amusing. It's amazing I can still find something funny after what happened..._Annie thought. And then an English accented voice interrupted her train of thought.

"Is this seat taken?"

Annie turned to see Sergeant Gary "Roach" Sanderson, one of the Task Force 141 operators, walking over to her.

"No." Annie said, smiling despite herself. Without his body armor, protective eyewear and rifle he looked like any other person she would see walking down the street in Paradise Valley. Well at least a fairly athletic Paradise Valley citizen with a pistol strapped to his right thigh.

Roach sat beside her and said, "I can't even imagine how you're feeling right now."

"My home's been destroyed, almost everyone I knew is either dead, a refugee, or turned into one of those Heartless things..." Annie said, "And I'm still not sure where to even begin next?"

"You're at least alive, and your family is too, as terrible as that sounds it's a lot to be grateful for." Roach remarked as he sat down, the edges of a paperback novel sticking out of the right cargo pocket of his tan trousers.

Annie paused for a few moments, "I still feel terrible though. I mean I got my family and I'm alright, but so many people..."

Annie lightly hiccuped between sobs. Roach instinctively put his arms around her. Annie cried for what felt like forever before she sat up and rubbed her eyes a bit.

"Sorry about that." Annie said.

"No need to apologize." Roach said. Serving with Her Majesty's 22 SAS meant Roach had seen survivors of horrible things, massacres, bombings and the like. The grief he saw written on Annie's face mirrored that which he saw on civilians caught up in many conflicts around the world. Yet for some reason he couldn't compartmentalize to that more objective part of his brain, like he usually was able to.

Annie decided to try and move the conversation towards a somewhat lighter vein. She noticed a book sticking out of Roach's pocket and asked, "What are you reading?"

Roach pulled it out and said, "_Star Trek: Typhon Pact, Zero Sum Game. _Basically it's about a Warsaw Pact-like alliance of many of the Federation's traditional enemies, the Romulans, Tholians, Gorn, Breen, et cetera. Sorry, I'm a bit of Star Trek nerd."

Despite herself Annie chuckled, "So am I."

Roach asked, "So what's your favorite series?"

"I'm a _Voyager_ sort of girl." Annie replied.

Roach replied, "I'm sort of a _Deep Space Nine_ type."

"I also am a big fan of the _Next Generation._" Annie replied.

"It's among my top three favorites. My top three are DS9, Voyager, and Next Generation in that order." Roach replied.

"Nice, we can be friends then." Annie joked, "Although my personal favorites are Next Generation, Voyager, and then DS9."

"At least our second favorite Trek series are the same." Roach remarked.

"Are you flirting with me?" Annie said, looking up at Roach.

Roach smiled and said, "I can neither confirm nor deny."

"Typical government response." Annie replied.

"When you deal with especially secret material on a day to day basis it does tend to bleed over into one's life." Roach said.

Annie considered Roach's somewhat cryptic reply, and replied with a direct but non-confrontational voice, "You are flirting with me."

_She's onto me. But then what did I sodding expect? She's quite smart, basically my sort of woman. _Roach thought.

"I admit my timing was certainly not the best in the world." Roach replied.

"I'll agree with you there." Annie replied, looking up at him, "So you've shown you're interested in me and I'll be just as honest, I'm interested in you."

"So the question is, what are we going to do about it?" Roach said, "Admitting I've been a tad hasty, I think that we should take this slowly and see what develops."

"I agree with you." Annie replied, "We'll take this slow and see where it goes, just in the meantime..."

"You need your space." Roach said, "I understand."

"Thank you." Annie said, moving closer to him and putting her arms around him. Roach hugged her back.

A voice interrupted them, "Roach, I need you to find...nevermind."

Both Annie and Roach turned to see Ghost coming over to them, "I was going to ask you if you could find Ms. Mack and escort her to the meeting with General Hawk, but I see you've already done so."

An awkward silence followed and Roach began to say, "Ghost, uhm..."

Ghost put up a hand, "Think nothing of it, this sodding place is alive with drama, rumor mills and the more than occasional explosion as is."

The ground shook just then and Ghost quipped, "Not to mention earthquakes and suddenly created geological phenomenon."

"Thanks Ghost." Roach said.

"Don't mention it." Ghost said as he headed off. _Less than a day here and I already think staying in a mental institution would be saner. _Ghost thought.

* * *

"Our Father, who art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name..." Ted began, praying an Our Father at the base chapel.

_Fifty thousand? My God, why have you abandoned us. _Ted thought as he prayed his Our Father. He heard footsteps behind him and a small bark and saw Paige standing with Klondike in the sanctuary.

He crossed himself and walked over to his fiancee and his dog as Paige said, "Hey stranger, Klondike and I were wondering where you'd disappeared to."

"Just to pray to the Almighty." Ted replied, embracing his fiancee and lightly kissing her lips, "You know my places of thought are places to climb and places of worship."

Paige smiled at her fiance and said, "I did check a couple of the newest sleep terraforming features Avalanche made last week for you. I did worry when Alpine said you hadn't climbed either of them."

"I just hadn't gotten around to it yet." Ted replied.

"I'm officially less worried now since you're talking about climbing." Paige said, sitting down in one of the pews with Klondike. Ted went to join her, just holding hands with her.

"I draw strength from being with you as well." Ted replied, "Remember how I told you that you are my angel."

Paige lightly fingered the silver angel Ted had given her for Christmas one year underneath her shirt. "Vividly." Paige said, pulling the angel from her shirt, along with Ted's dogtag attached to it.

"There's something else on your mind too, isn't there?" Paige asked.

"Not only the fifty thousand hearts lost in Paradise Valley. But also my old YAMAS team. Things in Israel from what I've been hearing are heating up." Ted replied.

"Same with all over the world. A civil war has broken out in Angola as well." Paige replied.

"As if, and of course the Mutant Registration Act is going around Congress again. Senator Kelly's been going nuts." Ted replied.

"I know, honey." Paige replied, "Anyway, Roadblock called a meeting. I went to go find you."

"Lead the way, honey." Ted replied, holding hands with Paige.

Klondike let out a soft woo woo sound as they headed towards Misfit Manor.

* * *

"Mountaineer now that you're here, we can start the meeting without fear." Roadblock began.

"I gather this is about the Mack family?" Ted asked, noticing not only the X-men and Misfits were in the room but several members of Task Force 141, Soap, Ghost, and Royce as well as the Incredibles.

"In a nutshell." Roadblock said, "General Hawk's having a talk with the Mack family, post going through all this Hell."

"Additionally we're willing to offer them a place to stay if they don't want to stay here." Ororo said, "Professor Xavier and Beast are also in the same meeting."

"Ok. So if they do elect to stay here, where are they going to stay?" Ted asked.

"Pietro's actually got a floorplan for an extension for Misfit Manor. He and Dash are working on this." Shipwreck replied.

"Wait, you put Dash and Pietro on the same project?" Spirit remarked.

"Knowing those two a disaster is imminent." Low Light grumbled.

"Relax, I've got Violet and Scarlet Witch making sure those two stay in line. Everything will be just fine." Roadblock remarked.

"Do you always speak in rhyme?" Royce remarked.

"You'll get used him doing that, in time." Ted replied with a semi-sarcastic grin at his fellow Canadian.

Royce shook his head with an annoyed and grumbled threat at whoever came up with poetry. Ted chuckled.

"Something funny?" Ghost remarked, he and Royce were the two Task Force 141 representatives at the meeting.

"That's just how Roadblock typically talks." Paige explained.

"Say no more." Ghost replied. _Sodding strange lot. _he thought.

"Paige, I understand that your family is willing to offer the Mack family a place to stay, at the city at the Bay?" Roadblock asked.

Paige nodded, "Piper's in that meeting with General Hawk as well."

"Can you keep them safe?" Shipwreck asked.

"Piper will make her case." Paige said, "But arguing this matter here isn't the time or place."

Ted chuckled at his fiancee and Paige responded, "What's so funny?"

"You imitating Roadblock." Ted replied.

"Alright," Ghost said, "Assuming that the Mack family doesn't choose either the Pit, the Institute, or wherever you and your sisters live, what's their other option?"

Ghost turned to address Roadblock, Ororo, and Paige in turn.

"Frankly, although going it alone we wouldn't prefer, to their wishes we will defer." Roadblock said.

"I think it best we keep them under observation." Ghost said, "If they pick that option it's best we keep an eye on them."

"What makes you say that?" Ororo said, "Isn't that an invasion of privacy?"

"If those wankers that destroyed Paradise Valley were willing to destroy an entire town to get after Alex and her family, what makes you think they won't do so again." Ghost replied.

"You're not suggesting we hold them against their will?" Shipwreck remarked, "That's callous and cruel."

"If it works..." Ghost began.

"Stop." Roadblock growled, "We are not holding the Mack family against their will. We will abide by their wishes."

"Right." Ghost grumbled.

Paige said, "Whatever happens, I'm willing to use my training as a social worker to provide grief counseling."

"Psyche Out offered his services as well." Roadblock remarked.

"No offense to Psyche Out, but I think they might be better of being counseled by someone more normal." Paige said.

"And I did see you appear and disappear in a shower of blue circles..." Royce remarked, "And you call that normal?"

"It's called orbing, a Whitelighter power." Paige remarked.

"Right," Royce remarked, "And you're an alternative to the base psychologist because..."

"No offense, Royce, but have you _**met **_Psyche-Out?" Ted asked.

Royce shook his head, "As the internet meme goes..."

Ghost grumbled, "Royce, shut it."

"Psyche Out's a little bit strange." Althea added, "He's a great counselor, yes, but I think the Mack family might benefit from someone who's a little more normal."

"A witch is more normal than a military psychologist?" Royce asked, having flipped through a spiral bound book he and several of the Task Force 141 soldiers had been issued to orient them to the Misfits, X-men, Charmed Ones, and Incredibles.

"Since you seem like you've got all the answers." Paige remarked sarcastically, "Who would you suggest they see?"

"Well they could always try talking to Blob." Arcade suggested.

"A massive mutant with super strength and invulnerable skin?" Royce said, flipping to the entry on Blob, "He's a therapist?"

"Not yet, he's studying psychology and therapy under Psyche Out's tutelage." Ted remarked, "And Paige has been helping him out too."

"So the choices the Mack family has are a witch who's a social worker, a super strong mutant, and a debatable lunatic of a psychologist. Some choices." Royce remarked.

"I repeat," Paige replied, in a civil yet stern tone, "who would you suggest the Mack's see if they need a counseling?"

"Fair point." Royce said, backing down, "Remind me never to get into a debate with you, ever."

Ted chuckled, taking Paige's hand as he talked, "I learned a long while ago not to try and talk Paige out of something when she's convinced she's right. Or at least have my facts straight."

"So much for the infamous Israeli stubbornness." Royce quipped.

"Israeli stubbornness has its place." Ted replied, "When it comes to relationships, even. But remember William Shakespeare said 'Discretion is the Better Part of Valor'."

"Wuss." Royce joked.

"The fact that Paige happens to be my fiancee aside, there is a phrase called pick your battles." Ted replied.

Ghost chimed in, "Verbal jousting aside, I suppose we've since decided that whatever the Mack family decides to do we'll support it."

"More or less this is the case." Roadblock said, "Now it's up to that meeting to decide the Mack's new place."

"Fair enough." Ghost replied, "What of the matter of Pyro?"

"He's currently healing in the infirmary. Lifeline and Bree are watching over him. It will be a while yet before he's out." Shipwreck added.

"What of when he gets out? He is a known associate of Magneto." Ghost replied, "We'd best detain him."

"So were we." Lance remarked defensively at Ghost's accusatory tone, "Almost all of us were former associates of Magneto. Trust me, once Magento deems you useless he casts you aside. So Pyro is the least of our worries."

"A mutant that can control fire. Least of our worries? Not hardly." Ghost replied, not backing down, "Locking him up..."

Every mutant in the room bristled at Ghost's remark.

"Are you against mutants for some reason?" Cyclops remarked.

"No, I'm not. I am, however, against terrorists on general principle." Ghost snapped back.

"Locking him up is a last resort, is that clear." Roadblock said, "I just wanted to make sure of this, you hear."

"There is one other matter however." Quick Kick added, trying to break the tension.

"And that is?" Ghost asked.

"It's a welcome reception we're holding for your element, Ghost." Quick Kick said, "Everyone is invited."

"And that's why Blob seemed to have monopolized the kitchen." Ghost said, "I might've known why so much food was being trucked over here. It seemed a lot, even with what these books say of Blob's appetite."

"So where's this thing being held?" Royce asked.

"The Pit's Community Center." Roadblock said, "We just rebuilt it."

"Rebuilt it?" Ghost asked, "What happened?"

"A fire. Barbeque got a bit out of hand trying to emulate a metal band." Roadblock said, "His pyrotechnics set the stage on fire."

"Literally?" Ghost said.

"Literally." Roadblock replied.

_What sort of sodding lunatic asylum have I landed in? _Ghost thought.

* * *

"So he proposed when you were flying out of Paradise Valley?" Phoebe Halliwell asked Angela Bennett as the two women were directing setting up the Community Center for the event.

"Just before the helicopters turned up to extract us he asked me to marry him." Angela said.

"Not to sound pessimistic, but that sounds like bad timing to me." Phoebe replied.

"It was, but it was awfully sweet of him." Angela said, "I mean, we didn't know if we were going to survive the blasts or not so he thought it was best to ask."

"And did you answer?" Phoebe said.

"No, I didn't." Angela replied, as she checked a cable connecting a speaker to the sound system.

"Take it from me, whatever your answer is, he's going to need to hear it." Phoebe replied.

"Not to pry, but I take it you had a similar experience?" Angela replied with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, actually." Phoebe replied.

"Can you elaborate?" Angela asked.

"My ex-husband proposed to me after we vanquished a lower level demon." Phoebe replied.

"And you replied then?" Angela replied.

"No, it took me almost a month before I replied." Phoebe replied.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but was that proposal a harbinger of...you know, a bad end to your marriage?" Angela asked.

"No offense taken." Phoebe replied, "But unless Carl happens to be half demon, or the next Source of All Evil, I doubt you're heading for anything that catastrophic. What do you think?"

"I know we've both been through a lot. He risked his career to help me when I was on the run." Angela replied, "And I didn't help things by running."

"From what you've told me, you were on the run from the Praetorians. If he's carried the torch for you all this time, that's definitely a good sign." Phoebe replied, "I wouldn't be too hard on him with his timing, but I'd still talk to him about it."

"I intend to." Angela replied.

"Oh good." Phoebe said, noticing Carl Draper walking into the community center, glancing at her cell phone, "My sister Paige wants to talk to me about something."

Phoebe walked out of room just as Carl walked in. _No time like the present. _Angela thought.

Carl Draper hadn't expected to see Angela in the community center. The initial shock subsided, replaced with a bit of uneasiness but also a sense of resolve. He needed to talk to Angela about the proposal. _Now's as good a time as any. Looks like she's thinking the same._

They met about halfway across the dance floor of the community center and practically at the same moment said, "We need to talk."

"Ladies first." Carl remarked.

"I'll waive that clause, since you're the one who proposed." Angela replied.

"I'll admit the timing of my proposal wasn't the best in the world." Draper began.

"No arguments here." Angela replied.

"But I meant every word of it." Draper replied, "When I saw how Paradise Valley was just going up in flames and just everything else it underscored something to me. Namely, Angela, you're the most important person in the world to me."

Draper paused for a moment and Angela replied, "Go on."

"Well, you are the most important person in the world to me, Angela. And all this crap going on be damned I would honestly like to spend my life with you." Draper replied, "I'll admit, again, I picked a hell of a time to actually ask that question, but that question's been on my mind for a good while now."

"Fair enough, Draper." Angela said, "But the fact that you picked a time we were under fire to ask me still sticks out in my mind. And not in a good way."

"I'll admit, again, my timing wasn't the best. I'll go so far as to say it was lousy." Draper replied.

"Ok, we've established that." Angela replied, "But how would you proposed?"

"Well first off it would have been under _far _less dire circumstances." Draper replied.

"No arguments there." Angela said. _Still it was very sweet of him. Should I let him off the hook? _

After a brief silence Angela said, "So let's say you hadn't proposed to me while Paradise Valley was exploding all around us. How might you propose?"

"Well, first I'd pick a moment..." Draper began.

"Given what happened earlier, you could use some help picking your moments." Angela quipped, with a slight bit of mirth.

"Ok," Draper said, "bad example. Well I'd first drop to one knee, like so."

Draper then dug into his pocket and said, "And I'd also be sure to present an engagement ring...and then ask."

"Go on." Angela said.

"Will you marry me?" Draper asked.

"Yes." Angela replied, smiling as Draper slid the ring onto her proffered hand, standing up and kissing her.

* * *

Roach walked with Annie up the path towards the headquarters building. After checking in at the front desk, he walked with her to the conference room. He rapped lightly on the door and heard General Hawk say, "Come in."

"Sir," Roach said, "Ms. Annie Mack to see you."

Roach peeked into the room, seeing General Hawk and Duke of G.I. Joe, Charles Xavier and Hank McCoy of the X-men, Piper Halliwell and Leo Wyatt from the Charmed Ones and Mr. and Mrs. Incredible.

"Thank you." Hawk said.

"If you don't require anything more of me, sir, I'd best be on my way." Roach said.

As Roach walked out of the room Soap reached over and stopped Roach, "Stick around for a moment, Roach. I'll need you to pass some news down to Ghost when the time's right."

"Yes sir." Roach said, taking a seat beside Soap and Lansor.

"Alright." General Hawk said, after taking a quick look around the room and said, "First off, my condolences to losing your home. I'll get right to the point, you've got offers of a place to live."

"On a military base?" George asked.

"The Pit is one option, yes." Hawk replied, "But by no means is it the only option."

"Just what are our options?" Barbara replied.

"Well," Hawk said, "As your husband alluded to, the Pit is one of your alternatives. Another is the Xavier Institute and San Francisco, though I'll let Professor Xavier and the Halliwells fill you in on the details of the Xavier Institute and San Francisco respectively."

Barbara had remembered everyone in the room, having been introduced to them at the start, before Annie had been walked in with the British soldier, the one the Scotsman had called Roach. The publicist had mentally filed away everything she could about the group. She knew the Parr family were also living next door to the Halliwells from that introduction.

"If there aren't any further questions," Hawk said, "I'll let Professor Xavier start."

"Thank you, General Hawk." Xavier said, "I run a school for mutants in Bayville, New York. How familiar are you with mutation, Dr. Mack?"

"I know enough that in human beings it manifests at or around puberty." George replied, "However genetics isn't my primary field."

"Well, because the mutations manifest around puberty, an already difficult time, I created the school to not only help young mutants learn how to control and use their powers responsibly but also to advance their educations." Xavier said.

Annie remarked, "I've read something about Bayville in the news and also you had Forge undercover at the Plant."

"What have you read?" Xavier asked.

"I read about the mutants and how you work to help them control their powers." Annie said, "And Forge did mention that to me briefly."

"I'd like to make an offer for the four of you, not only a place to live but jobs for you, Dr. Mack and Mrs. Mack. And also an opportunity for Alex to finish her schooling and work on her powers." Xavier said.

"What powers?" George asked.

"Yes, Professor Xavier, what powers?" Barbara added.

"Alex?" George asked.

"You didn't know?" Professor Xavier asked.

"For a telepath you're not too perceptive." Lansor remarked.

Alex, for her part, barely heard the questions. She heard the thumping in her ears more than anything else. She saw her father's mouth move, but didn't hear the word.

"Alex?" George asked, "You're a mutant?"

Alex nodded and said, "Well yes, I think, sort of..."

"When did you know?" George asked, softly, worried.

"Remember the accident, the GC161 delivery truck?" Alex asked.

"Yeah, I remember and..." George said, "That was you?"

"Yes." Alex replied, sniffling slightly.

"Why didn't you tell us?" George replied, his tone wasn't accusatory, it was one of a concerned father.

"Do you think Danielle Atron would've helped Alex or stuck her in a lab, possibly vivisecting her or performing God knows what experiments on her?" Annie added.

"You knew about this too?" Barbara said.

"I was the first person Alex told." Annie replied, "And one of only two who kept the secret."

"Who else knew?" George asked.

"Ray Alvarado." Alex replied.

"You could've told us?" Barbara said.

"Just because I work," George began, then caught himself, "I mean worked at the plant doesn't mean I would turn you over to Danielle."

"Dad, I'm sorry. But I didn't know what to do." Alex said.

"Sweetheart, we wouldn't let Danielle or anyone take you." Barbara added.

"I'm sorry Mom." Alex sniffed.

"It's ok, dear, just from now on just realize you can trust us." Barbara said.

"That's both of us." George added.

After an awkward silence Piper made her proposal, "Another option could be living close to us, in San Francisco. You'd still be in California and you'd have not only me and my sisters, who have plenty of experience dealing with powers of any sort, but the Parr family as well."

Bob Parr added, "As Supers, we can help protect you from any reprisals from either Atron's organization or the Heartless."

"And of course there is the alternative of resettling anywhere you like on your own. We'll even furnish the tickets." Hawk replied, "And we won't interfere in your lives whatsoever."

"Thank you all for your offers." George replied, "But my family and I will need some time to discuss this."

"You can use my office." Hawk offered and watched as the Mack family filed out.

Almost an hour later the family returned and George Mack said, "General Hawk, we discussed the matter and we've made our decision. We would like to stay here on the Pit."

* * *

**The End. **

**Up next, a one shot welcoming the Mack family to the Pit.**


End file.
